Leading law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), has hit out at the growing number of "vague, meaningless and unenforceable conditions" attached to licences by councils.
Associate director of BLP Jeremy Bark said that more conditions were being imposed than were necessary. Conditions often also referred to matters outside the control of the licensee and, in some cases, were speculative.
Bark said licensing committees are attaching conditions that are outside the guidance set down with the Licensing Act 2003.
He said the discretion of committees is too broad, and many conditions do not relate to "licensable activities", promote "licensing objectives" or follow guidance to be "necessary, proportionate, clear and unambiguous". Bark said eight out of 10 appeals against conditions had to do with those that fail to meet this last requirement.
He said conditions can be improved or avoided by talking about issues beforehand. If licensees wait until after conditions have been handed out, hearings allow them only three minutes to present objections, no matter how many are attached.
He also said that councils have been prone to condition speculatively against issues that might be a problem. One such condition was added to a licence where, "to assist the safety of children going to and from school, a suitably-trained staff member should be in the car park between 2pm and 5pm each day to supervise movement of vehicles". This was despite the fact that, in the 20 years of trading, there had never been an accident.
Emergency review provision is 'draconian'
BLP slammed the emergency review provision under the Violent Crime Reduction Act as "draconian".
In the case of serious crime or serious disorder, which must be certified by a senior police officer, and which covers problems such as stabbings, glassings or gang warfare, the authorities can do "whatever they like" without calling in the licensee. They can modify the licensing conditions, remove the designated premises supervisor, or suspend the licence altogether.
Revolution Vodka bar in the City of London, operated by Inventive Leisure, was a recent victim of this emergency review following an incident where a patron was stabbed. Its 1am licence was restricted to lunchtimes only immediately after the attack. Half an hour after this was imposed the licensee was allowed to make representations, and the licence was extended to 6pm.
However, the council can choose to ignore these representations, in which case the only avenue open to the licensee is a review hearing within 28 days. In the interim period at Revolution, the licensee was "losing money hand over fist".
In this case, at the review hearing, the licensee was given an 11pm closing time; the difficulty is that appeals take an average of three to six months for a hearing. During this time, licensees are forced to revert to the interim measures, which in this case meant he could only open until 6pm. Last week, the bar regained its 1am opening time.