Police resisting hours flexibility

It is hardly surprising that the completion of licensing appli-cation forms reveals widely-dif- fering approaches and widely- differing reactions throughout the country, particularly on the questions of hours.

The problem lies in the manner in which the form is expressed. Just what are 'standard timings? Are these the hours you intend to open on a regular basis, or are they the outer limits of a time period within which you would like to operate? And anyway, what happens if you vary within those hours? you are not obliged to use them all under the new law, any more than you are obliged to use the general licensing hours now.

Far from bringing an end to the perceived problem of inconsistency, which was a charge levelled against the existing regime to justify changing it, the first indications are that the new system will provide a higher level of inconsistency that will confuse and confound customers and licensees. This is because even in the same licen-sing authority, hours of oper- ation will be different, even for similar pubs.

Then there is the strong police influence which I am picking up from many parts of the country. The other responsible authorities have been relatively quiet, but the police have been very pro-active, particularly on the question of hours. They have sought to prevent a great many applicants from making general statements in the box concerning 'non-standard timings.

Police want to see specific times and specific days mentioned here. They are also seeking advance notice sometimes as much as 21 days if a pub or club wants to de- part from the standard tim- ings and continue serving until a later time.

One police force in Essex is stating that only 12 non-standard timings for alcohol per year will be allowed, with prior notice to the licensing authority, the police and the fire authority!

I think there is confusion here with temporary event notices, which are not covered in the variation boxes at all.

There is also a very strong reaction against attempts to put down standard timings for a full 24 hours, even though it is made entirely clear by the applicant on the application form that this is not for regular opening, but to cater for as yet unknown departures from normal opening times.

It is very clear to me that the police in certain counties have a policy of resisting any attempt to create true flexibility and are trying their hardest to pin licensees to specific times. It remains to be seen whether they will be successful.