Guidance for Club Premises

This guidance should not be considered authoritative.

For further information regarding your application you should refer to the Licensing Act 2003, the Section 182 guidance issued by the Secretary of State and Mole Valley District Council’s Licensing Policy.

To apply for a new Club Premises Certificate you will need to complete an application form.

This form must be submitted with a:

• club operating schedule
• premises plan
• copy of the rules of the club
• appropriate fee.

You will qualify as a club if the conditions are met:

• only members or candidates for membership are admitted
• that the club has at least 25 members
• that the club is established in good faith
• alcohol is not supplied by anyone other than the club or on their behalf.

Additional conditions for the supply of alcohol:

• managed by a committee
• who are members of the club
• the members must be over 18
• are elected by the members of the club
• no person is to make any profit either directly or indirectly from the supply of alcohol

Unlike other premises licences, club premises do not require a designated premises supervisor and a personal licence holder to be responsible for the premises and the sale of alcohol.

The Act specifies that applications have to comply with four licensing objectives:

• Prevention of crime and disorder
• Prevention of public nuisance
• Public safety
• The Protection of children from harm

Our Licensing Policy promotes these objectives, and its contents must be considered by every applicant for a premises licence.

Applying

Specific guidance on every application may not be possible. Professional advice should be sought if you have any doubt and for complicated applications.

The applicant must be over 18.

The application form will guide you through the information that you need to supply.

To request your club activities in any way e.g. later opening, live entertainment or late night food, you will need to specify this on the operating schedule.

You will also need to advertise the application in the local press at least once within ten working days, from the day after the applications submitted to us.

You are also required to display a notice near to the club for no less than 28 days starting on the day after the application was submitted to us.

The notice needs to be at least A4 or larger, a pale blue colour and printed legibly in black ink or typed in black equal to or larger than font size 16.

The notice needs to be placed prominently at or on the premises, which the application relates to and where it can be conveniently read from the outside of the premises.

This will enable persons in the vicinity that may be effected by your proposals to object.

Other statutory consultees will also have the right to object on the grounds that it would be contrary to the licensing objectives.

These include: police, fire, environmental protection, health and safety, and child welfare representatives.

For example, the fire service may object if there is not a current fire safety certificate in force for the premises.

The police may object if there have been disorder and or criminal activities recorded at your premises.

If there is an objection by any of the above your application will have to be heard by a licensing sub committee.

They will determine whether your application is acceptable, or if necessary amend or impose conditions on your activities.

You have the right to appeal against any decision they make to the Magistrates Court.

If there are no objections and the application conforms to the licensing objectives you will get your licence, which will state what you are allowed to do on your premises.

It will be an offence to do anything else that is not specified on the licence. The licence will have to be displayed on the premises.

If you wish to change your operating schedule at a future date, this can be done by applying to us to vary your licence.

Club Operating schedule

Once you have decided what you want to do on your premises it will have to be detailed in the operating schedule.

You will need to specify your opening hours, what licensable activities you intend to conduct during those opening hours, any special occasions or events that you may wish to hold regularly, and if you intend serving food after 1 pm and before 5am.

This could mean that you could specify certain activities on certain days and at certain times.

For example you may wish to have an extension to your hours of opening on Friday and Saturday nights when you have a karaoke evening.

Or you may wish to hold a dancing contest on Thursday afternoons.

This is possible in the new licence; one licence will cover all activities.

Plans

The plans of your premises must be submitted with your application.

They must be at a scale of 1:100, clearly show the boundary, the area where the licensable activities are to take place, fire escapes, fire-fighting equipment and all other detail as specified in regulation 23 to the act.

Fees

These are based on the non domestic rateable value of your premises.

For details on charges, see ‘Environment Health Fees and Charges’.