Agenda item

Report of the Director of Markets and Consumer Protection.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Markets and Consumer Protection in respect of the assessment criteria, financial implications and processes in response to COVID-19 lockdown and easing thereof in respect of tables and chairs licences, which had been suspended during lockdown. 

A Member commented that Officers needed to ensure that any interaction with businesses was expedited as granting these licences would be an existential issue for many food and beverage outlets. Whilst not wishing in any way to slow the process down, he also questioned whether there could be any Member oversight of applications. Officers reported that they had already proactively reached out to businesses during lockdown in this respect and had listened keenly to their concerns. They were obviously keen to maximise their opportunities and work in partnership with the City Corporation in order to do so. Once Members had reached a decision today, site by site decisions would be turned around very quickly and fed back to businesses so that they were able to use this in their planning. Officers also undertook to look at introducing Member visibility to the process.

Another Member encouraged a more positive and proactive as opposed to a regulatory approach in terms of identifying sites that could be used for tables and chairs and those businesses looking to introduce these opportunities to get the City back up and running. The Chair noted that this report was written from the perspective of those businesses that already had licences and would like to see them reintroduced but there were, of course, those premises who had not traded using outside space previously, that also needed to be proactively targeted which Officers had undertaken to do.

A Member stated that he hoped that Officers could very quickly understand where they may be additional opportunities in this respect but added that he did not understand why the report referred to only 40 of 107 existing licences being reintroduced. Officers reported that this was an estimate based on a paper-based analysis. However, this week, Officers would be on-street to ascertain what else could be facilitated in the context of public safety, queuing space and safe passage. Other spaces such as reallocated carriageway spaces were also being actively worked on by both Licensing and Transportation teams to determine which of these might be appropriate for tables and chairs and engaging with businesses in these locations. This was very much a work in progress.  The Chair added that businesses also required sufficient lead in time in order to reopen and that it was therefore very important not to make false promises.

Another Member questioned whether a change in national legislation on licensing and other legal provisions for drinking outdoors played into this. Members were informed that Officers had anticipated the changes in relation to off-sales although this would not necessarily impact on what was being done in terms of tables and chairs licences as this was essentially about the allocation of highways space. The off-sales point would be looked at from a licensing perspective and what impacts this may have. The Chair stated that some London Boroughs were, however, facing issues of the conflation of off-sales and tables and chairs on the street so it would be important to take into account.

A Member stressed that she hoped that, in terms of guiding principles, Officers were looking to legislation and not government guidelines. She added that the reduction in social distancing requirements from 2m to 1m should also help more than 40 businesses to re-establish tables and chairs licences. She added that she had requested, at the outset, for Officers to actively identify space for tables and chairs and stressed that premises would only be able to reopen and be profitable with the use of outside space. In terms of off-sales, if there was no current condition on licences prohibiting this, it would be permissible and space for this therefore needed to be secured.

A Member spoke again to suggest that he felt there was a need to pool resources across the Corporation to actively identify these spaces. He mentioned, for example, the CPAT team who worked directly with and acted on behalf of businesses, working alongside Licensing and DBE to provide a full picture as quickly as possible.

RESOLVED – That:

1.      The criteria officers will apply in line with the five principles, when reinstating

tables and chairs licences to the City over the coming phases of lockdown

easing, as outlined in Appendix 2 of this report, be agreed.

2.      The proposed way forward, as outlined in paragraphs 16 and 17 of this

report be agreed.

3.      The financial implications as outlined in paragraph 19 of this report be noted.