Fears over residents' role in licence reform

Licensing lawyers fear new legislation on making minor changes to pub licences will lead to misunderstanding from residents and inconsistency between councils.

Berwin Leighton Paisner associate director Jeremy Bark praised the original proposals as "quite well-thought out and sensible" but hit out at the House of Lords, who "undermined the whole basis for reform" by giving local residents a voice.

"Residents will not understand the fact that this is supposed to be a quick system subject to minimal input," he told a seminar on the changes today.

Craig Baylis, a partner at the firm, fears that without guidance, rules for what constituted a minor variation would vary greatly between licensing authorities.

He criticised Government for rejecting a plan to make a formal list of these issues because it was too "prescriptive".

He also warned of possible time delays — if a minor variation was rejected, an application for a major variation, which takes 28 days, would have to begin.

The law is designed to remove old or unenforceable conditions, and authorise minor works. Licensees might apply to have fire capacity limits removed, but Baylis warned some councils, including Westminster, have already been told internally that this is a system they will hardly ever use, and variations over capacity will have to be major.

There's no basis for appeal and the decision is entirely at the licensing officer's discretion.

From 29 July applicants for a minor variation will have to fill in a form, pay £89 and display a white notice on their premises. Licensing officers will have 15 working days to deal with the application.