Andrew Pring, Editor, Appeals will hurt pockets

Appeals will hurt pockets

When the Government calculated so optimistically the savings to the trade of the new licensing regime, it's safe to say the cost of appealing against a local authority's decision on a licence variation played no part in its arithmetic. So not only are operators looking at costs of about £2,000 per pub - and on that rough figure we arrive at an overall total trade cost of £120m, far higher than Government promised - but the costs of going to appeal will push that up dramatically for the few brave enough to venture down this unpredictable route.

Yet this is not something that the ranks of the anti-pub brigade have even thought about. As far as they're concerned, members of the public are being bullied into silence by the possibility that they may have to pick up the legal costs if they lose their appeal against a pub's granted hours. On that basis, say the pub haters, consultation is sham and the odds are stacked in the favour of the big boys. What a load of nonsense! The process whereby pubs obtain their new licences is designed to allow the public maximum opportunity to have its say. So much so that perhaps as many as half the pub applications have gone to local authority hearings, rather than been instantly granted. Here, the pub success rate has been gratifyingly high, but there are still many hundreds of cases due to be heard at appeal - and given the law is so untested, there can be no confidence of their outcome.

Laurel has run into unfortunate publicity over a Hog's Head's licence application in north-east London, which went to appeal. Just because it pointed out to residents they might have to pick up the legal bill, they've been accused of seeking to intimidate, and even pervert the course of justice.

What no-one seems to understand is that Laurel was doing what the law requires it to do, ie, point out cost implications. Amazingly, the local residents did not know that the British legal system is based on the principle that appealing against legal decisions can cost you. We may not like that - and boy, many pubcos don't at all - but it is the law, and until we come up with a better way, we have to abide by it. This issue must not be allowed to become a stick with which the ignorant try to beat the trade.