Varying a premises licence to gain extended licensing hours in a London CIP zone

The operator of a chain of highly successful cocktail bars wanted to extend their trading times to 3am on weekdays at one of their London venues.

However, the premises licence in use at this particular venue only allowed alcohol sales until 12am Monday to Wednesday and 1am Thursday.

The licensing legal problem:

The application to vary the premises licence, which was prepared by licensing Partner James Anderson, attracted a number of representations (objections) from the police, the licensing officer and a local councillor; all of whom were concerned over the impact this would have on the area.

Complicating this application further was that, in addition to the representations, the cocktail bar was located within a cumulative impact zone. This is a special geographical area where the council has policies prohibiting the granting of new applications or licence variations and, as a result, the application went to a hearing before local council.

The legal value we added:

James presented the application at the hearing and following an amendment, an extension till 2am Monday – Thursday was granted.

This was a significant result as the application was granted against the local authority’s licensing  policy and in the face of significant objections.

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