Legal advice: Occasional licences
Occasional licences come under scrutiny as the new licensing era approaches.
By Suzanne Davies of thePublican.com's team of legal experts from London solicitors Joelson Wilson.
So we now have the first appointed day for the transitional period of the new licensing era to begin - February 7, 2005. However, such announcements have not deterred challenges under the existing legislation. The latest point to exercise the minds of eminent barristers and judges alike in the highest courts in the land revolves around the circumstances when an occasional licence can be granted.
As readers will know, licensees are asked from time to time to "lend" the authority of their licence to authorise the sale of alcohol at another venue. Circumstances can be as straightforward as for the purposes of a garden fête or function, but they have also been granted times when permission for alcohol to be sold is required at premises already licensed, or about to be licensed. It was effectively in these circumstances that the recent case in the Court of Appeal arose.
A licensee failed to renew his licence and arranged for another to be used to make an occasional licence application - essentially to fill the gap pending a renewal hearing. The judge in that case noted that the justices had a wide discretion and that under the circumstances of that case it was appropriate to grant the licences.
The latest case related to premises in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. By virtue of a mechanism under the Licensing Act 1964, known as the "special removal" of an old on-licence (effectively a licence granted before August 1964), Ultimate Leisure removed an existing licence from a premises which was the subject of a compulsory purchase order by the local authority, and the premises to which the licence had been "removed" commenced trading. For a variety of reasons the Court of Appeal decided that the requirements of the act in relation to the procedures for special removals of licences had not been met and accordingly the licence was no longer allowed to operate.
In order to preserve the trading position of the second premises, Ultimate Leisure made an application for an occasional licence. One of the questions for the Court of Appeal was whether granting occasional licences in these circumstances was lawful.
Fortunately the Court of Appeal decided that the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne magistrates were lawful in reaching their conclusion.
The court also briefly considered the length of time occasional licences may last. Since they are of a temporary nature and can only be granted for a period of 21 days, applications are frequently made for blocks of 21 days up to the required period of time. It was mentioned during this case that some premises have operated for up to two years on the basis of occasional licences. The judge did not specifically wish to set down what period of time might be considered too long and therefore unreasonable, but he said that what the Newcastle justices granted in the case before him, which was three sets of 21-day blocks, was not unreasonable.
