Published: 16 October 2017
Q: I have recently taken over an inner city bar and I want to ensure that I maximise my trading potential with Halloween coming up and also over the Christmas and New Year period. However, my Premises Licence only allows me to currently trade up until midnight on Monday to Sundays and ideally I would like to trade for later hours on Halloween, Christmas and the New Year period. Can you advise me on my options?
A: You will need to check the terms of the Premises Licence, as this may include permission to trade extra hours on the named special days, such as Bank Holidays, Halloween and Valentines Day. It may include New Year’s Eve and Christmas Eve as well. If you have the authority by way of these ‘non-standard timings’ on your licence, you should then check the conditions on your Premises Licence to see whether or not there are any further restrictions or conditions you must satisfy in order to trade the extra hours. On some licences there are conditions requiring you to give either the Police or the Licensing department prior notice of the event. If your standard and non-standard hours do not permit you to do what you want to do on these dates, or there are restricted conditions preventing you from operating as you wish, then you can lodge either a Standard or Late Temporary Event Notice with the Licensing Authority, Police and Environmental Health Department (or Licensing Authority only if you are using the online service, as they then serve the other authorities). Alternatively, the other option if you are looking to trade later on certain days is to apply to vary your Premises Licence permanently. With all these options there are time scales and restrictions involved and if you are unsure seek legal advice or speak with your Licensing Authority before proceeding.
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