The Business and Planning Act 2020 was passed to promote economic recovery and growth in response to the economic impacts of the global Covid-19 pandemic.
The Act includes urgent provisions designed to make it easier for premises in England serving food and drink such as bars, restaurants and cafes to seat and serve customers outdoors through temporary changes to planning procedures and alcohol licensing.
The Act create a temporary regime for the issuing of pavement licences by the Licensing Authority. This is different to the existing licensing scheme for pavement cafes under the Highways Act 1980. It is designed to be a quicker and more streamlined route for businesses to secure a licence to place furniture on the highway.
The aim of the legislation is to support businesses to operate safely while social distancing measures remain in place so that they can generate much needed income over the summer months and protect as many hospitality jobs as possible.
The Council has adopted a policy on pavement licensing which provides information for applicants and outlines the approach the Licensing Authority will take when determining applications. The policy also contains details of the published standard conditions that will be attached to pavement licences.
You can apply for a pavement licence here.
On the same day that you make the application, you are required to give notice of your application by fixing a notice of the application to the premises so that it is readily visible to, and can be read easily by, members of the public who are not on the premises.
You also have to make sure the notice remains in place until the end of the public consultation period which means the period of 7 days beginning with the day after you make the application.
A template notice you can use for this purpose is available here.
All applications received will be available to view online here.
If you wish to make a representation to a pavement licence application, you must ensure you do so before the end of the public consultation period (which runs for 7 days, starting with the day after the application is made to the Licensing Authority), otherwise your representation may not count.