9.1 In dealing with an application for a premises licence the Council is obliged to consider representations from two categories of person referred to in the Act as ‘responsible authorities’ and ‘interested parties’.

9.2 Upon receipt of representations, the Council must determine whether or not the representations are admissible. A representation is inadmissible if not made by a responsible authority or an interested party. After that, the Council must then determine its relevance. The only representations that are likely to be relevant are those that relate to the licensing objectives, or that raise issues under the Gambling Policy, the Commission’s guidance or relevant codes of practice.

Responsible Authorities

9.3 Section 157 of the Act identifies the bodies that are to be treated as ‘responsible authorities’. They are:

• the licensing authority in whose area the premise is wholly/partly situated
• The Gambling Commission
• the chief officer of police/chief constable for the area in which the premises is wholly or partially situated
• the fire and rescue authority for the same area
• the local planning authority
• an authority that has functions in relation to pollution of the environment or harm to human health
• anybody designated in writing by the licensing authority as competent to advise about the protection of children from harm
• HM Revenue & Customs, and
• any other person prescribed in regulations by the Secretary of State

9.4 Section 211(4) of the Act provides that in relation to a vessel, but no other premises, responsible authorities also include navigation authorities within the meaning of section 221(1) of the Water Resources Act 1991 that have statutory functions in relation to the waters where the vessel is usually moored or berthed or any waters where it is proposed to be navigated at a time when it is used for licensable activities. This would include:

• The Environment Agency
• The British Waterways Board, and
• The Secretary of State (Note: in practice, the Secretary of State for Transport who acts through the Maritime and Coastguard Agency)

9.5 The Council is required by regulations to state the principles it will apply in exercising its powers under Section 157(h) of the Act. That is to designate, in writing, a body that is competent to advise the Council about the protection of children from harm. The principles are:

• the need for the body to be responsible for an area covering the whole of the Borough of Bexley, and
• the need for the body to be answerable to democratically elected persons, rather than any particular vested interest group

9.6 The Council designates its Trading Standards Service for this purpose; and in doing is satisfied that the principals set out in paragraph 9.5 are met.

9.7 The Council notes that under the Act there is no obligation on responsible authorities to respond to applications for premises licences if they do not wish to do so but would encourage them to do so in order that their views on an application are transparent to the applicant and to the residents of the borough.

9.8 Contact details for the responsible authorities are provided in section 16 of the Gambling Policy.

Interested Parties

9.9 Section 158 of the Act defines an ‘interested party’ as a person who:

• lives sufficiently close to the premises to be likely to be affected by the authorised activities, or
• has business interests that might be affected by the authorised activities, or
• represents persons in either of these two groups

9.10 As explained in paragraph 9.2 the Council must first determine that the person making the representations qualifies as an ‘interested party’. The factors the Council may take into account when determining what constitutes “sufficiently close to the premises” include:

• the size of the premises
• the nature of the premises
• the distance of the premises from the location of the person making the representation
• the potential impact of the premises (number of customers, routes likely to be taken by those visiting the establishment), and
• the circumstances of the complainant, which is not the personal characteristics of the complainant, but the interests of the complainant that may be relevant to the distance from the premises. For example, it could be reasonable for the Council to conclude that “sufficiently close to be likely to be affected” could have a different meaning for (a) a private resident (b) a residential school for children with truanting problems and (c) a residential hostel for vulnerable adults

9.11 In respect of persons with business interests that could be affected the Council will need to be satisfied that the relevant business is likely to be affected. In this respect, the Council will have regard to the fact that the “demand test” in previous legislation has not been preserved. Factors that are likely to be relevant and therefore taken into account by the Council include:

• the size of the premises
• the ‘catchment’ area of the premises (i.e. how far people travel to visit), and
• whether the person making the representation has business interests in that catchment area that might be affected

9.12 The Council will give a wide interpretation of the term ‘persons who have business interests that may be affected’, which may include partnerships, charities, faith groups and medical practices.

9.13 The Council will take care to distinguish between deciding whether a person is an interested party (i.e. whether their representations are admissible) and forming a view on the substance of their representations (i.e. whether their representations are relevant).

9.14 When considering the relevance of representations, and particularly whether a representation is ‘frivolous’ or ‘vexatious’, the matters the Council may consider are likely to include:

• who is making the representations, and whether there is a history of making representations that are not relevant
• whether the representations raise a ‘relevant’ issue
• whether the representations raise issues specifically to do with the applicant premises

9.15 The Council considers that the third category of an ‘interested party’, that is persons that represent residents or business, may include democratically elected representatives such as local Councillors and Members of Parliament, and bodies such as trade associations and trade unions, and residents’ and tenants’ associations. In other cases, the Council will probably wish to satisfy themselves on a case by case basis, for example a school head or governor might act in representing the interests of pupils or parents and a community group might represent vulnerable people living near to the proposed premises. In appropriate cases the Council may require written evidence that the person acts in a representative capacity, for example a letter from the person who is being represented.

9.16 The Council will have regard to anything an interested party says about his status to make representations.

9.17 Where an ‘interested party’ makes relevant representation, which are not considered to be ‘frivolous’ or ‘vexatious’, a copy of their written representations, including their name and address will be sent to the applicant and will be included in the report prepared for the licensing hearing, which is a public document. However, the Council accepts that there may be occasions when an ‘interested party’ does not want their name and address to be released to an applicant or included in a public document and has a protocol in place to deal with such occasions, a copy of which can be provided by contacting the Licensing Partnership (section 16).

9.18 Representation received by the Council that do not supply the name and address of the sender will not be considered as it will not be possible to ascertain if they meet the ‘relevancy test’.

9.19 Guidance notes for the benefit of interested parties who wish to make representations to a premises licence application are available via the Council’s website or by contacting the Licensing Partnership (section 16).