Licence reviews soar say lawyers

Even good operators struggle, says barrister

Operators around the country have faced a 1,000% increase in the number of licence reviews and other enforcement action in the past four years.

The figures were revealed at a Poppleston Allen seminar on tackling licensing enforcement in London, where delegates heard even good operators face difficult times coping with heavy-handed enforcement.

Poppleston Allen partner Clare Eames said the "scary" statistics refer to the use of enforcement action around areas such as preventing underage sales, as well as licence reviews.

Barrister James Rankin, of Francis Taylor Building, said his duties were now more about protecting licences than applying for new ones.

Rankin listed examples of councils, police and courts using their powers excessively or misguidedly to make life hell for operators.

He pointed to a bar in Fulham that applied for a 2am licence. Police wanted a

midnight cut-off but coun-cillors granted an 11pm licence, "which defied the evidence".

"That's not unusual," said Rankin. "We find it more and more."

He also highlighted excessive fines for relatively minor licence-condition breaches.

Operators of a Soho cafe with a 2am alcohol licence were fined £8,000 for serving a beer at 3am. They pleaded guilty and it was their first offence.

"Times are going to get really hard for operators," Rankin said.

"There's going to be no soft, kid-gloves approach [from authorities], even for the good operators."

Eames said that some council licensing committee members were "pretty much inciting local residents to call for a review".