Image Alt

Premises License Reviews

  /    /  Premises License Reviews

When things go badly wrong, the Responsible Authorities or other ‘interested parties’ such as your neighbours, may call for a Premises Licence Review.  This is NEVER good news, as effectively these parties seriously intend to curtail your operation severely, and probably even close your business completely, by revoking your Premises Licence.

These Hearings take place in a Town or City Hall, are attended by Councillors, Lawyers, members of the Responsible Authorities (e.g. the Police) and the Press.  It is very like going to Court, and like any Court it is very easy to leave disappointed.  It is a daunting and uncomfortable place to be.  You are going to be centre-stage and answering some pretty searching questions by some very clued-up people.  Your judgment, actions and motivations ARE going to be called into question.  Nowadays many Authorities record the audio from these Hearings and then publish those recording online for the world to hear.  Some DOs and DON’Ts:

  • DON’T sit on the situation and hope that it will go away. It won’t and you WILL be appearing before a Licensing Sub-Committee within about a month, whereby the evidence against you will be heard and tested.  This may well end up in you losing your Premises Licence, which will severely impact upon the viability of your business.
  • DO preserve any evidence that is available e.g. your CCTV footage, receipts, till roll, incident logs etc. Identify as best you can who the potential witnesses are that can provide evidence that might assist you in the forthcoming Hearing.
  • DO gather and preserve the papers that are served on you by the Licensing Authority. Scan them into your computer and email them to us for our independent and FREE advice on how best to handle this situation.

☝️ We will ALWAYS give you an honest appraisal of your prospects, and act in your best interests to defend your position and endeavour to “keep you legal and trading”.

✅ Instruct The Licensing Guys to act on your behalf, we will contact the Authority and other parties in order to negotiate your position.  We will also prepare your defence and represent you at the forthcoming Hearing if required.

We will now start to look at the main things that can go wrong…