News: Variations Required to Amend Delivery Conditions During the Olympics

  • Date: 23/01/2012
  • Source: Poppleston Allen
  • Author/Solicitor: Clare Eames



At the BBPA Olympics Logistics Summit this morning, Nick Lester from London Councils, outlined the implications for operators in respect of complying with conditions for their premises, under both planning and licensing regimes, relating to when deliveries can take place.

It is not uncommon to find on many planning permissions, especially those granted within the past 20 years or so, a requirement that deliveries cannot take place during the night, due to any impact on residential amenity.

In the same way, it is not uncommon to find conditions on premises licences, especially where they trade near to residents, requiring there to be no deliveries between set times during the night.

Westminster Council, for example, have as one of their model conditions for licensed premises a condition that states: 'deliveries are not permitted between 23:00hrs and 08:00hrs'. As such, this is commonly found on licences.

Mr. Lester talked about light touch enforcement of planning conditions during the Olympics and stated that it is not possible for local authorities to 'automatically write off complaints' but in instances of breach following a complaint, councils will be 'sympathetic' to the operators.

In complete contrast (and the reason given is to do with the different enforcement regimes) Mr Lester stated that where there are premises licence conditions restricting deliveries, it is expected that operators should be going back to the relevant licensing authority to apply for a variation of the premises licence in time for the Olympics, where they anticipate having to 'breach' those conditions.

The reason that this is so important is that during the Olympics, many parts of London and indeed other parts of the country where there are Olympic events, premises will simply not be able to have their deliveries other than during the night. A good example of this is all premises that fall on the Olympic Route Network cannot take deliveries between 06:00hrs and midnight and therefore the window of opportunity to deliver may conflict with conditions on the premises licence.

The impact of this is far reaching. Not only in relation to the costs of making applications for variations, but also what type of variation could be made, as many local authorities may take the view that because delivery restrictions are imposed to ensure there is no public nuisance to local residents they may feel that there should be a major variation and not a minor. In addition, operators may yet be unclear on how their deliveries will be effected during the Games.

We are currently in discussions with the relevant licensing authorities to ascertain their views and will update you in due course.



For more information please contact Clare Eames