Peace and goodwill at Xmas
They call Christmas the season of goodwill, but readers of MA's Snifter page may be forgiven for thinking that there's not much of it about in south Norfolk, especially when it comes to carol singing.
But Snifter may be a little off-beam (too many jollies?) when he says that this is a Licensing Act issue and that a licence may be required for those merrily singing on high. As an ardent pub carol singer myself, I know that such annual escapades are not covered directly by the licensing laws.
So the landlord himself has nothing to fear in letting the minstrels inside, or from letting them rattle their cans under his regulars' noses.
This is not "regulated entertainment" in the legal sense and he isn't even providing facilities for entertainment, as they usually just stand around in the bar.
The fact that money changes hands does not mean that your customers are "paying" for entertainment, because the donations are entirely voluntary and not taken from every customers - certainly not in my experience. And unless I am totally out of touch, amplified carols are only heard in shopping malls, not in the Dog & Duck!
The issue highlighted by the keen licensing officer in East Anglia concerns an entirely
different permission - a street collection permit. Now if you thought alcohol licensing was complicated, I have news for you.
A quick trawl through the local authorities demonstrates that street collection rules are entirely different and can be quite complicated, depending on the city you carouse in.
Sometimes, you have to wear a badge. Only one carol singing group is allowed at a time. Permits are usually free, but there is a wonderful array of paperwork to complete. It is a whole new world of licensing for the uninitiated, controlled as usual by a town hall lackey with a fine sense of proportion.
But this is to do with street collections and collections in other public places. As I have often commented before, a public house is not a public place. Carol singers in your pub do so at your behest, not the council's. So in my view, as long as they confine themselves to pubs, the carollers do not need a licence at all, and the licensing officer may be out of line on this.
But to be on the safe side, I am waiting for one of my learned friends to tell me that a case is listed in the High Court for this December!
