Licensing@aol.com - Peter Coulson

Conditions on a licence

QWhen we took over this bar, the

magistrates imposed a range of conditions regarding the way it was run, which now seem very unfair compared with other outlets in the district. To be on the safe side, we only applied for

conversion of our existing licence. Do these conditions stay on the licence for ever, or can we remove them somehow?

A Many pubs now find themselves in something of the same position, and possibly have assumed that these original conditions must stay with the licence. But this is not true.

While some restrictions fall within the licensing objectives, there are a number imposed by the justices under their old regime that are of dubious relevance. At the time they may have had their own agenda — for example, not wishing an additional full on-licence to be established — but that is no longer part of the objectives of the

Licensing Act, unless there is a policy on cumulative impact in the area in which you operate.

You may apply for a variation of the licence simply to remove existing conditions. On the application form is a box that asks you to state what conditions you expect to be removed as a result of the variation. You can apply at any time, and if the conditions are not really relevant to the licensing

objectives, there may be no objections. However, as you have to advertise a variation, local residents may take the opportunity to raise some issues. Contact the solicitor who helped you in the first application to point out the sensitive areas.

Temporary events past midnight

QA number of events are coming up in the Christmas run-up in our pub, but we are already up to six temporary event notices. Someone has told me that if an event lasts after midnight, it counts as two days. Is this true?

A In one sense it does, even though only one application form is required (with copies). The reason for this is that the Licensing Act stipulates that a "day" is any period of 24 hours beginning at midnight. So it is open to licensing authorities to consider that an extension from 11pm until 2am is one temporary event notice (TEN) but counts as two days towards your total of 15.

If, however, the TEN is in respect of a pub where the agreed hours already end at midnight, an extension from midnight until 3am would count as only one day.

So you can have 12 notices in all for the pub in any one year, but 15 days' coverage.

Residents' friends after hours

QSome time ago you mentioned that under the old law the residents' right to be served extended to their friends. What if they have made friends in the bar that evening? Can they continue to use the bar even when other people have been required to leave the premises?

A Clearly it will depend on the individual facts as to whether they are real friends and whether there was some form of recompense made to the resident. A licensee cannot turn his bar customers into friends, but there will be circumstances in which it is quite appropriate for someone staying the night to continue to be supplied with alcohol after the time stated on the premises licence, relying on the implied condition brought over from the previous legislation.

Although some licences were silent on this point, I advised those who had

residential accommodation to insert a mention of it during transition, to make it clear the right continued to exist.