This note relates to pavement licences that would be granted to existing alcohol licensed premises.  Inevitably the provisions are detailed and contain some ambiguity; however, one issue that has been identified as potentially posing some difficulty for operators is the provision of standard conditions.

The Note states: “Within the legislation it is envisaged that Authorities will have a standard set of conditions to which any licence will be granted. These conditions should be those considered that are “reasonable”. An important factor is they are automatically added as a default on any deemed grant. 

“Whilst crafting these conditions it might be helpful to consider the aims and objectives behind the legislation and its intention to support business to recover from the impact of Covid 19.  It is intended to be a fast track, light touch power which is time limited and so needs to balance the burden on business against the desire to ensure the management of safe external spaces and consideration of local concerns.”

Conditions imposed on a licence should be:

• Appropriate, necessary and proportionate;
• Precise, clear and unambiguous;
• Practical, realistic and enforceable;
• Non-duplicative of existing statutory requirements or offences;
• Self-contained;
• Modern and fit for purpose;
• And, finally:
• The fewer conditions the better.