Making a song and dance
Westminster's dancing ruling has caused controversy
by David Clifton of thePublican.com's legal team of experts from London solicitors Joelson Wilson
The recent fine meted out to Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries for allowing dancing in two of its Pitcher & Piano outlets has led to a storm of controversy.
As the law stands, you need a public entertainment licence (PEL) permitting music and dancing at your premises before you allow customers to dance to music. But what constitutes dancing?
In the case of Pitcher & Piano, it appears that customers were moving rhythmically. Other operators have been threatened with prosecution where their customers have been found swaying - presumably to the music rather than for any other reason!
One problem is that there is no definition of "dancing" under the law, either as it presently stands or under the new Licensing Bill.
I have been involved in cases myself where a question will arise as to what constitutes dancing. This question, for example, can be crucial in applications for special hours certificates (SHC), when the sale of alcohol has to be secondary to the provision of music and dancing and food.
Perhaps when the dancefloors of the land were filled solely with ballroom dancers, the position was more clearcut than it is now. However, times have changed. I am sure we are all familiar with the sight of someone moving part of their body (but not necessarily their feet) to either recorded or live music.
Using a standard dictionary definition, that could be regarded as dancing even if the person concerned has a drink in their hand. I have certainly argued successfully on SHC applications that this does constitute dancing.
Obviously common sense needs to come into play. If someone is swaying to music supplied in your pub by a DJ with flashing lights in an area in which the furniture has been moved back to create something that might be described as a dancefloor, it would be harder to resist a suggestion by a local authority inspector that dancing is taking place, than if a customer is tapping his foot to a catchy tune supplied by way of background music.
Efforts by staff to stop customers from dancing, either by verbal request or by way of notices on the premises should assist.
However, when you are operating premises in an area such as Westminster which is enforcing the PEL laws more rigorously than anywhere else in the country at the moment, you need to be more watchful than ever.
If you are in the Westminster area and think that you will apply for a music and dancing licence to remove the risk of a Pitcher & Piano type prosecution, just be aware that the council is in the process of revising its PEL policy.
Related articles:
Pitcher and Piano fined for allowing drinkers to move 'rhythmically' (21 November 2002)
