Entertainment & alcohol licensing

News: Clean up your Act

  • Date: 15/07/2008
  • Author/Solicitor: Nick Walton

The 1st July 2007 will be a date remembered by everyone as the commencement of legislation which made it an offence to allow smoking in public buildings including licensed premises, but the responsibility of licensees didn't stop there.

Premises Licence Holders were also required to make arrangements for the disposal of cigarette butts and other cigarette materials outside their premises on the public highway. In order to ensure this happened, other legislation was amended to include the provision of used smoking materials and the requirement to ensure that the areas of premises fronting onto public highways were kept clear of smoking litter.

It is therefore worth noting that the Local Authority now has the power to force Premises Licence Holders to clean an area of up to 100 metres adjacent to the frontage of the premises, if they allow smokers to drop their cigarette ends or smoking materials on the ground.

Before July 2007 the Environmental Protection Act enabled Local Authorities to enforce the removal of litter from such premises as retail stores and late night food refreshment or kebab houses. To coincide with the enactment of the new non smoking legislation, further regulations extended the enforcement potential for Local Authorities to include the requirement of the clearance of smoking materials from the public highway, by licensed premises.

Not only does the Local Authority have the power to issue Fixed Penalty Notices to an individual dropping litter, they also now have the power to issue Street Litter Control Notices and enforce the requirements of the Street Litter Control Notice against the Premises Licence Holder for smoking materials which find their way onto the pavement outside their premises.

You may already have been involved with the requirements of Environmental Health, specifying that litter bins or specific cigarette butt bins be provided by the Premises Licence Holder for use by their patrons when they go outside to smoke, in the terminology of the Enforcement Officer this is called a Section 47 Notice. Hopefully you will not have come across the next part of the legislation which is called a Section 93 Notice. The Section 93 Notice is the Street Litter Control Notice. This requires that the Premises Licence Holder maintain the area identified on the Street Litter Control Notice around the premises free of litter or smoking refuse. The sanction for failure to abide by Street Litter Control Notice is reasonably high with a fine upon conviction of £2,500. This is clearly a very expensive way of clearing up after patrons who wish to smoke outside of your premises when they come for a drink.

Premises Licence Holders who fail continually to abide by the Street Litter Control Notice will find themselves on the receiving end of payment requests from the Local Authority pursuant of the Local Authority's power to clean the area and ensure that cigarette material and other smoking litter is not left on the pavement area identified in the Street Litter Control Notice.

Street Litter Control Notices issued by the Local Authority last for a period of one year whereupon they are merely renewed or the authority may decide that the issue of the Street Litter Control Notice for a period of a year has been sufficient to ensure that the area around the premises has been kept clean.

Due diligence is therefore imperative to ensure that the area in front of your premises is kept clean if smokers have nowhere else to go and they use the frontage of your premises to have a smoke when they come to visit you for a drink. Don't let the Environmental Health Department get to the point where they are issuing a Section 47 Notice by maintaining a cigarette butt and cigarette litter free area where your patrons smoke.

For more information please contact Nick Walton