Clause 14 - Authorised persons, interested persons and responsible authorities
Licensing Bill [Lords]
10:00 am
Mr Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight, Conservative)
Amendment No. 178 deals with the narrow description of an interested party. I shall furnish an example of an interested party that in my opinion, is not covered by paragraphs (a) to (d) of subsection (3). It is certainly not covered by paragraph (e) and would be even less covered by it should the Minister achieve his objective of removing that paragraph. The example is a hospital. A hospital is not a person; it is not
''a body representing persons who live in that vicinity'';
or
''a person involved in a business'',
unless, of course, it is private hospital; or
''a body representing persons involved in such businesses''.
Neither is a national health service trust covered by subsection (4).
If someone—it might be not the Isle of Wight council, but a private individual—aimed to promote a pop concert or festival on land abutting a hospital, the representatives of that hospital would not be a relevant person or ''interested party'' in terms of objecting to the application. The subsection is drawn too narrowly and ought to include any body, whether an individual or a corporate or unincorporated body, that may be affected by an application.
I understand that there has been criticism from other sources of the use of the word ''vicinity'', because it does not mean a specific distance. Is the vicinity of the premises confined to the road or neighbourhood in which the premises are situated, or would it comprise the whole town or village in which they are situated? Is the vicinity the area over which one could hear amplified music, were the licence to be granted? If so, I understand from some of my constituents who were around at the time of the Isle of Wight pop festivals in the early 1970s that it was possible to hear the sound of the festival from Totland to Newport. For those who are not as familiar as the Minister with the geography of the Isle of Wight, that is a considerable distance. I understand that it took the Minister about an hour to traverse that distance by car last year.