Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005

Posted by on Jun 23rd, 2011 in Feature on Home, News

 

Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005

Objections and Observations by Community Councils

An issue has arisen recently in a case where a community council submitted an objection to the grant of an application under the above Act in respect of premises licensed to sell alcohol. In terms of the Act, where an objection or representation is received, the board is obliged to serve a copy on the applicant. This will include the name and address of the objector/ party submitting the representation. The issue arose recently where a community council used the home address of one of the office bearers in the letter of objection and this was passed to the applicant. While it is a matter for each community council to decide which address they use on correspondence, I would wish to highlight the fact that where an objection or representation is submitted to an application under the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, we are obliged to forward a copy of that letter to the applicant to give them notice of the issue and to enable them to respond to the points raised. It is not possible to remove details of the objector.

FURTHER UPDATE: 27/06/2011

The Chief Solicitor has agreed that Community Councils may use c/o West Lothian Civic Centre, Howden South Road, Livingston, EH54 6FF, if they wish, when objecting to licensing applications.
Arrangements have been made with the Civic Centre mail room to pass any correspondence addressed to community councils c/o the Civic Centre to me and I will ensure that they are passed on to the appropriate community councils as soon as possible.

Lorraine McGrorty
Community Council Liaison Officer/Committee Officer