The Licensing Act 2003 governs the licensing of individuals, businesses and organisations undertaking licensable activities.
A range of permissions exist for licensing these activities; premises licences, club premises certificates, personal licences and temporary event notices.
Havant Borough Council Licensing warns licence holders to be aware of premises licence scams.
These scams are making phone calls or sending texts asking traders to pay money to update their licences via a bank transfer.
Should you receive contact of this nature, please email licensing at licensing@havant.gov.uk before making any payment. We will never make unsolicited calls or texts asking for payment, as we use an invoice system.
If you think you may have been the victim of a scam, this can be reported via Action Fraud on their website or by calling 0300 123 2040
The Council’s Statement of Licensing Policy, published in accordance with section 5 of the Licensing Act 2003, was adopted on 20 September 2023 by Full Council.
The Council, and the premises and individuals that it licenses, must seek to promote the four licensing objectives at all times. These are:
Individuals, businesses and organisations that undertake licensable activities will ordinarily require permission from their local council. A range of permissions exist for licensing these activities; premises licences, club premises certificates, personal licences and temporary event notices.
The licensable activities are:
The sale by retail of alcohol includes sales of alcohol in a physical premises direct to the customer (i.e. in a pub or supermarket), and sales of alcohol via the internet or mail order.
For more information on the supply of alcohol by or on behalf of a club, and qualifying club activities, please refer to our information on club premises certificates.
Regulated entertainment is broadly defined as any entertainment that takes place in the presence of an audience (whether members of the public or a club), or otherwise for profit, and the premises have the purpose of providing the entertaining concerned. This could be:
Late night refreshment is the sale of hot food or drink to the public, to consume on or off the premises, between 11pm and 5am.
Certain types of applications are subject to a public consultation period, during which a responsible authority or any other person may submit a representation. The representation must clearly relate to the premises to which the application relates and refer to one or more of the four licensing objectives. The licensing authority may reject any representation it considers to be frivolous, vexatious or repetitious. Representations cannot be made anonymously and must include the name and address of the person submitting it.
Representations can be made via email to licensing@havant.gov.uk, or via post to Licensing, Havant Borough Council, Public Service Plaza, Civic Centre Road, Havant, PO9 2AX. Representations received outside of the statutory consultation period cannot be considered; therefore, if you are sending your representation via post we recommend sending it several days in advance of the consultation’s end.
When making a representation, the name and address of the person submitting it will be kept confidential. The content of the representation will be published, with names, addresses, contact details and signatures redacted. However, if the person making the representation wishes to address the Licensing Sub-Committee at the hearing held to determine the outcome of the application, then the name of that person will be published in the public domain. Should any person prefer not to have their name published, they may nominate a representative to speak on their behalf. However, that representative’s name will then be published in the public domain.