AAA White Paper The political economy of informal events, 2030 | Page 86

Each application and its accompanying documents
must be submitted to the following authorities
BOX 4: OVERVIEW OF THE PARTIES AND PROCESSES THAT SURROUND
THE SUBMISSION OF A PREMISES LICENCE APPLICATION
Local
authority
Planning
Police
Environmental
health
Child
Protection
Trading
Standards
Fire Public
health
Home
Office Health &
Safety
No fewer than 28 days following the day of the initial application, the applicant
must display a notice prominently, and on pale blue A4 paper, on or outside the
premises/event space and within a nominated local publication
Non-obligatory mediation by the authorities listed above
Representations deemed valid
Licence hearing
Appeal unsuccessful
Licence
denied
No representations
Licence
granted
Application successful
Application unsuccessful
Appeal to magistrates court
Appeal successful
the licensing authorities have issued a licence to conduct business, but
other areas, too – parks, fields, courtyards, castles: the very locations
where the explosion of outdoor festivals has taken place.
The diagram gives only a hint of the slowness of the licensing process
in practice. Despite some recent improvements, event organisers
can still wait six months for a hearing. Appeals to Magistrates’
Courts also take an inordinate amount of time – for everyone. There
undoubtedly needs to be further discussion, among all parties to
the licensing process, on how best to expedite the authorisation of
events.
Indoors or outdoors, one point holds good. As with all regulation,
the issue with Premises Licences is not simply that there is ‘too
much’ or ‘too little’ regulation around them. The issue, rather, is
getting regulations appropirate and clear, as well as backing them
up with formal good practice and education.
This White Paper fully backs the democratic right of residents,
through locally elected councillors, to object to and even halt events.
At the same time, the decision whether or not to allow an event to
get a licence should be made by taking all factors into account, and
pursuing a rounded evaluation of each factor and its interaction
with others. That, after all, is what the law insists upon.
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