Licensing policy

The Licensing Authority as a Responsible Authority

13.1 We, as the licensing authority, are now included within the prescribed list of Responsible Authorities for the Licensing Act 2003. As a responsible authority, we will not make representations on behalf of other parties such as residents, local councillors or local community groups, as they already have the ability to make representations about licensing applications.

13.2 We consider that our role as the licensing authority is to ensure that the conditions attached to a licence or certificate are clear, proportionate and enforceable. Therefore we will use our role as a responsible authority to make representations when conditions do not meet this requirement. Where a licence or certificate holder has previously failed to comply with conditions on their permission, we may make representations where we consider the grant of the variation will undermine the licensing objectives.

13.3 Where we make a representation it will be submitted by an officer who has not been a part of the administrative process of the application. Our scheme of delegation at Appendix C