Can you believe it is now 15 years since the “new” Licencing Act came into force? The year was 2003. Tony Blair was Prime Minister, Girls Aloud were number 1 with Sound of the Underground and Jonny Wilkinson’s last minute drop goal secured England’s first Rugby Union World Cup. 15 years. Where does the time go?
The 2003 Act was a revolution in the leisure industry but while the snowflakes of time have covered the tracks of the old licensing regime, there are still a few of us hacks about who remember what it used to be like. In the old days, pubs had to close at 10:30pm on a weekday and 11:00pm on a Saturday and extensions were few and far between. It was the same at lunchtime. Bars opened at noon and had to close at 3:00pm. Big brother or what? Can you imagine the public putting up with that now? You know, the establishment dictating when we can all drink and when we have to go home? That is how it used to be though, the former strict opening hours a grim residue from when Gladstone first introduced them in 1874.
After a few years finding its feet the ‘new’ legislation works very well, the transfer of responsibility for liquor licences from the courts to local authorities benefiting both the industry and the consumer. People who aspire to run licensed premises are now carefully screened with all bars, shops, clubs and restaurants monitored by a partnership of local organisations including Trading Standards, Police, Fire Brigade and the Environmental Health Department. The introduction of premises and personal licences necessitates compulsory training for operatives and standard house conditions such as CCTV and access to first aid. The legislation also improved the rules relating to door supervision or “bouncers”. In the bad old days any thug could act as a doorman and many frequently did. Now, however, all supervisors need a license which can be forfeited if they step out of line. The thugs are nearly all gone. Definitely a change for the better.
Where do the lawyers fit in? Pretty much everywhere actually. We make applications for licenses, we draft subjective conditions and we represent premises and individuals at odds with the authorities including casualties of the historic battle between resourceful youngsters wanting drink and premises taken in by them. We represent people whose applications are opposed by the local council and those who are carpeted at the Town Hall for breaching their conditions. These can be and often are feisty hearings but in our experience, the local councillors with local knowledge usually get it right – not all of the time but most of the time and on the rare occasions where they may not have done we will appeal their decisions to the local Magistrates Court.
The world is in fast forward mode. In the last 15 years a huge chasm has opened between the way things were and the way they are now. The leisure industry has seen the unstoppable rise of the supermarkets, the advent of vertical drinking, the development of the sports bar, the clearance of pool tables and dart boards and above all, the astonishing revolution in the social habits of young people. I don’t suppose I will still be practising in another 15 years and can only imagine what the High Street will look like then. However, I am in no doubt that future generations will come to see the Licensing Act 2003 as a defining moment in the social history in this country with the impact of the legislation set to outlive the previous watershed in 1874.
Simon Catterall, Partner, E: scatterall@jacksons-law.com, T: 01642 356 500
