Re: More PEL clarification ZZZZZZ:-)

Tom & Barbara Brown27/11/03 7:12 PM

> 
> "Chris Rockcliffe" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]

> I find it hard to believe that the wording of the Act excludes just the CIU
> affiliated clubs - and the wording of the Act itself is the only thing that
> we or the courts can go on.

No, the CIU - is an umbrella organisation accounting I understand for some
two thirds of the total of all registered member clubs in England and Wales.

The CIU website - dated July - says in relation to this:

"Fees will be increased but simplified - the biggest downside is a
substantial increase in fees. There will be an initial fee to be on the
Local Authority list of CPCs and a yearly renewal fee. These amounts will be
the same irrespective of club size and will be determined by the Minister
shortly. There will, however, be no fees or licences such as Public
Entertainment Licences".

(are the last two lines of that bit weasely wording or what? CR) it goes
on...

"Non-members and functions: clubs will be allowed 12 temporary events a
year. This means wedding functions will be permitted subject to approval
from the Local Authority. However, the individual who applies can make only
five applications. Therefore the Secretary would make the first five
applications, then the President would make the next five, and the Treasurer
the remaining two".

(It seems the cost of those 12 events in the case of the sub 200 person
limit club I've been looking at is some 2050 UKP per annum on top of the
normal fees which will also be higher.)

"Club Premises Certificate - this will take the place of the registration
certificate and will be issued by Local Authorities as opposed to
Magistrates. If a club does not receive approval from the local authority it
will be able to appeal to the Magistrates. The Club Premises Certificate
will be valid in perpetuity and therefore clubs will not have to renew their
certificate as they do in court at the moment after one, three, five or 10
years as laid down by the Magistrates".

"The current Act will remain operative during the 18-month transitional
period and clubs due to renew registration certificates in the next year
should do so in the normal way".

So who is right - or am I missing something else here?

The promoter ( I guess I am in law considered as such) of any Licensable
event is under the new regime responsible by law to see if there is a PEL in
place.  (FC organisers note!)

> To quote the latest issue of 'Grass Roots', the newsletter of the MU folk
> section, 'The Bill extends entertainment licensing across all private and
> registered members' clubs...'
> 
> It's all very depressing, isn't it?

Yes, not only depressing, but very confusing too and the Licensing dept of
my LA described the area of reg'd club licences as a very grey area.  The
law cannot afford to be grey when it comes to this kind of thing or else the
law becomes an ass.

The Bill seems likely to kill off quite a few of the registered members
clubs as most are already struggling financially.

> As a by-the-by, the Act isn't in force yet,

Not finally in force until April 2005, I learned today.  And the liquor
licenses will stay with the magistrates offices for quite some time yet in
some Local Authorities. The new style licenses AFAIK start the middle of
next year.

I'm sure NuLab has all our best interests at heart though.  The DCMS told us
not to worry.

CR