Court inundated with 200 licensing appeals

by Tony Halstead

A court has been flooded with more than 200 licensing appeals from pubs, bars and clubs angry over restrictions placed on their new licences by Westminster City Council.

Staff at London's Horseferry Road Magistrates Court have admitted they have no idea how long it will take for justices to grapple with the massive workload.

It is feared many licensees and bar operators may have to wait long into the New Year to get their cases heard.

Until the outcome of each appeal is decided premises will only be able to trade on their existing hours and conditions guaranteed under grandfather rights.

Westminster, which has been constantly under the spotlight because of its controversial interpretation of the new Licensing Act, has attempted to block scores of extra hours applications.

Premises which failed to overturn objections at council licensing hearings have now turned to their local courts in a bid to get the extra hours approved.

A court spokesman said it was impossible to say how long the appeals would take to be heard.

'This is new territory so it's difficult to give any estimate of the time it will take to get through this. How long is a piece of string?

'When you consider 90% of our workload is made up of criminal cases you can see the scale of the job we have,' he said.

A Westminster City Council spokesman confirmed that the bulk of the appeals involved refusal to grant extra trading hours requested by premises.

The number of appeals lodged at Horseferry contrasts sharply with other courts in cities across the UK, such as Nottingham and Manchester which have received 25 and 24, respectively.

In Liverpool, city magistrates have so far received only five appeals.