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Home Making representations under the Licensing Act 2003

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The Licensing Act 2003 enables "interested parties" such as residents and businesses in the vicinity of the premises or councillors, or responsible authorities (such as the Police and noise control services) to rigorously examine applications using the Licensing Act 2003 as a framework and make relevant representations regarding any application for a new licence or variations to a licence or a review.

Who is the service for?

You can make a representation if you are a responsible authority or if you are:

a person living in the vicinity of the premises
a body representing persons who live in that vicinity
a person involved in a business in the vicinity of the premises
a body representing persons involved in these businesses.

You’ll know if an application for a licence or review has been made if you see any of the following:

A (blue) notice which will be displayed on the premises for 28 consecutive days
A public notice in the notices section of the local newspaper
An entry in the licensing register on the Council’s website.

All these notices will state the date by which representations should be sent.

How to make a relevant representation

If you wish to make representation (object) to an application for a licence, you must put your comments in writing preferably using the Council’s Form of Representation (PDF 49.7KB) and send it to the Licensing Authority within 28 days of the application being served. You must include the following information:

your name, address and signature
the date that you wrote the letter
the application that you are opposed to
the reasons why you are opposed to the application.

Only under exceptional circumstances can you remain anonymous. If you feel that you have sufficient grounds to apply for anonymity, please contact the Licensing Team directly.

If an objection is being made on behalf of a group (eg: a residents' association), then proof of the group's decision to make the objection must be sent to the Licensing Authority along with the objection letter. If a petition is submitted, then the organiser must:

provide their own contact details
state clearly the application that is being opposed and reason for such opposition on each page of the petition
clearly show the date that the signatures have been collected on the page.

Ensure that your comments are relevant. Representations must relate only to the four licensing objectives and those that are frivolous, vexatious or a repetition of a matter already considered will also be rejected.

A copy of the representations you make will be made public and has to be sent to the licence holder and/or his/her agent to give them an opportunity to respond appropriately. We will remove unnecessary personal data, but your name and address must be disclosed to all parties.

If you wish to withdraw any representations you may do so in writing up to 24 hours before any hearing, or otherwise orally at the hearing.