How to Advertise a Licensing Act Application

The Licensing Act requires the following applications to be advertised:

• new premises licences
• new club premises certificates
• provisional statements
• variation of a premises licence
• variation of a club premises certificate
• minor variations

New applications, variation applications and provisional statements need to be advertised in two ways:

1. by displaying a notice in blue paper on the premises, and
2. by placing an advertisement in a locally distributed newspaper:

Minor variations only need to display a notice on the premises in white paper. The notice displayed on the premises, for new applications, variations and provisional statements need to meet the following criteria:

• it should outline the proposals in your application, for example the activities you wish to have at the premises
• it should be prominently displayed on the premises (to which the application relates) so that it can be easily read by persons walking by
• must be of size A4 or larger
• must be on pale blue paper, or white paper for minor variations
• should be printed in black, in ‘times roman’ font, size 16 or larger
• the notice must be displayed on the premises for 28 continuous days (10 days for a minor variation). This time period starts the day after the application is submitted to the council. For example, if the application is given to the council on 1 March, the notice needs to be put up on the 2 March and taken down the 30 March)
• where the place to be licensed is more than 50 metres square, the law requires another notice to be displayed every 50 metres along the external perimeter of the premises next to the highway

There is nothing in the Act preventing you from placing more than one notice on the premises. You may therefore choose to display more than one notice, even though the ‘place’ to be licensed is less than 50 metres square. You should visit the premises regularly to check that the notice is on display, as any failure to display the notice for 28 continuous days may mean the application process has to start again.

The newspaper advertisement should contain the same information as the notice displayed on the premises and also meet the following requirements:

• be published in a newspaper that is circulated within the area the premises is located. This can include freely distributed newspapers in the local area
• the advert should be published at least once within 10 working days of submitting the application to the council, e.g. if you submit the application on the 1 March the advert needs to be in the paper by the 11 March

Applicants should send a copy of the published newspaper advertisement to the council or advise them as to when and in which newspaper the advert is to appear.

These are legal requirements specified under the Act; failure to meet any of the advertising requirements may mean the application process has to start again.

Advertising a minor variation

For these applications a white notice needs to be displayed on the premises outlining the proposed changes. This notice needs to be displayed for 10 working days and should be displayed the day after the application was submitted to the council and taken down 10 working days later.