Good Friday TEN extension
Q On your page recently you mentioned Good Friday. We have a straight conversion, which lists Good Friday hours as the same as Sunday, that is, 12noon until 10.30pm. If we wanted to, could we get an extension for Good Friday this year?
A You could certainly seek a Temporary Event Notice (TEN) for Good Friday this year, but you will have to move fairly quickly to get your application to the licensing authority in time.
By my reckoning you should aim to have your Notice in the hands of the authority by 30 March at the latest.
This is because there must be 10 working days at least before the date of the event for which you are issuing the notice. You must also enclose the fee at the same time, because if you forget it, the council might claim that the notice was invalid at the time of receipt.
There is nothing in the new Licensing Act that gives the council a right to object to an extension of hours on Good Friday or any other day, for that matter. Remember that you are not applying to them for permission and they do not have a power of veto. The only objection can come from the police, on crime and disorder grounds, so a straight request for additional hours for a pub on that day is unlikely to trigger such a response.
Incidentally, if you plan several events over the Easter weekend, there is nothing to prevent a single notice being given for the whole four-day period to extend the hours for the sale of alcohol, or for the provision of entertainment. This is a legitimate use of the TEN system for existing licensed premises, which can cover any period of up to 96 hours.
