Leading licensing barrister slams councils over “iron-rule” approach to cumulative impact zones

Philip Kolvin QC said councils were using cumulative impact policies as an excuse against granting further licences. He argued that instead, such policies should do nothing more than give councils the right to ask applicants to demonstrate that the licence will not impact negatively on the CIZ.

Kolvin said: “Councils can’t refuse licences simply on the basis that a cumulative impact policy is in place. In this most recent case, we successfully argued on the basis that it is not an iron-rule – all it does is compel the applicant to demonstrate that their proposal will not have a negative impact on the area.”

Irrelevance​

Sainsbury's won the appeal against Leicester City Council after it successfully argued that the issue of street drinking in the zone had been addressed through licence reviews and dealing directly with street drinkers.

Kolvin explained: “The council’s case was that its progress ought not to be threatened by yet more licensed premises, even it was a well-run operator such as Sainsbury's.

“However, any impact they were talking about had long since vanished. They hadn’t reviewed their policy, and we successfully argued that the policy had become an irrelevance.”

Kolvin expressed his surprise that there were so many CIZs across the country – estimated to be around 150 at the moment.

He believed the latest ruling should give encouragement to any business wishing to apply for a licence to sell alcohol in a CIZ.

Merits​

Kolvin said: “This case demonstrates the critical importance of giving individual consideration to the merits of applications and appeals, even when an application is contrary to a directly applicable cumulative impact policy.”

“We have moved the argument a little, to show that you can win convincingly in a stressed area, if you present the right case – as we did for BrewDog in Leeds last year.”

He added: “Any licensed premises applicant should think through what impact it is going to have, and think through what procedures and management policies they are going to put in place to ensure it don’t add to that impact.”