The Stage

Licence application delays will hit light entertainment

Published Tuesday 29 March 2005 at 11:50

The staggeringly low level of licensing applications to local authorities suggests that a key area for light entertainment is in for a grim summer.

Most councils are undeserving scapegoats. One thing the average local authority cannot be faulted for is a lack of commitment to inundating residents and businesses with updates on the latest regulatory changes. Thousands of pubs and clubs have been used to following the same old licence procedures without discrimination. Many will have failed to notice the evidence provided.

Short of placing several weeks of banner ads in the leisure industry press, there is little councils can do now but brace themselves for the inevitable barrage of complaints and rushed applications in the days before August 6. Of all the authorities, Westminster and Camden will be hardest hit as the two boroughs host the largest collection of licensed premises - an estimated 5,300 between them. That said, the geographical concentration of so many outlets lends itself to a door to door campaign which might represent the best means of persuading venues to stagger applications for the good of all.

Without some effort in this respect, thousands of bars and pubs will discover themselves suddenly unlicensed and having to pay out money for fines. Each time this happens another venue will be gone temporarily. Worse still, some managements faced with financial losses and last minute paperwork will decide that paid entertainment is a habit worth dropping.

Sugar proves arts still a tricky business

Since the eighties, arts practitioners in Britain have become used to being lectured at regular intervals by would-be experts from the business community on the need to remember that they are merely part of an industry like any other, with something to sell.

Ironic then to witness the obvious unease of some of Alan Sugar’s contestants in the BBC show The Apprentice when challenged to try their hand at the business of selling modern art work. All those well-honed phrases about believing in the product and market forces always being right went out the window for some when confronted with a contemporary canvas rather than flowers, department stores or an advertising campaign. A case perhaps of ‘do as I say, not as I do’?