Many pubs being strangled by council red tape

November 9, 2007: Some councils are drowning pub operators in red tape, according to a new survey of local authority licensing polices carried out by the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA).

The association, which represents nearly two-thirds of pubs, says that the current round of policy reviews being conducted by licensing authorities shows vast differences in approach. While there is only one Licensing Act covering England and Wales, local authorities are showing widely divergent ways of applying it — and the BBPA wants to know why.

The huge variety of approaches is costing pub companies time, effort and money as they attempt to deal with the policies of over 370 different local authorities, says the association. Some councils are seeking to impose complex and lengthy documents, while others' are only a few pages long.

The BBPA, which has been responding to the consultations, has compared the approaches of different authorities, which reveal huge discrepancies, even in adjoining local areas.

Birmingham, Dudley, and Bromsgrove: in the BBPA’s analysis of these three adjoining boroughs in the West Midlands, Bromsgrove’s policy runs to just seven pages, while neighbouring Birmingham’s is six times longer, at 41 pages including appendices. Next-door Dudley's is almost twice as long again, with a whopping 70 pages of detailed policy and appendices for publicans and pub companies to digest.

Swindon and Vale of White Horse: in the south of England, Swindon’s draft policy runs to just 13 pages, while in neighbouring Vale of White Horse, the Council has issued a draft policy running to 88 pages, with appendices.

Kirklees and Wakefield: in West Yorkshire the policy of Kirklees weighs in at 32 pages, while adjoining Wakefield runs to 114 pages — one of the longest of any policy in the BBPA’s survey of over 100 local councils.

The BBPA says that some policies can contain provisions that are beyond the scope of the 2003 Licensing Act. In some areas, licensees applying for variations in their license or new applicants will be faced with the costly decision to hire a solicitor just to get to grips with the detail and how it might affect their business. The lengthy policy of Blaby, in Leicestershire, for example, even covers issues such as allowing dogs on the premises — and keeping a torch behind the bar.

BBPA chief executive Rob Hayward said: "“If councils like Bromsgrove can keep their licensing policy to just seven pages, it is a mystery why others are so long and cover such a vast range of issues — especially when the Act is working well.

“Some councils seem to want to micro-manage their local pubs, yet it was never the intention of the Licensing Act to allow councils to introduce such complexity into their licensing policies. Highly detailed guidance and instructions on how to apply for a licence shouldn’t be necessary in individual councils, as this is all covered in the Act.

“The 2003 Act was a major cost to pubs. Some of these policies will create future bureaucratic burdens for pub companies and licensees."

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