Clause 98 - Temporary event notice
Licensing Bill [Lords]
3:00 pm
Mr Malcolm Moss (North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
I am grateful for the way in which the Minister is addressing the questions. He has been extremely helpful, not just to Opposition Members but to the many people who will read the Hansard report of our proceedings. He talked about the involvement of local authorities in small festivals. What legislation do they use to give permission? I do not see anything in the Bill. It is patently obvious that the local authority cannot license the highway for entertainment. Presumably, it can license only pieces of land that it owns, such as village greens. It seems extremely sensible to do that as the Minister explained, because it obviates the need for organisers to keep going back to the authority each time. I accept that, and I think that it is a very good point to get across.
However, with the festival that I mentioned earlier, I am not sure which law the local authority uses for giving permission for activities to take place. Is there simply a general agreement that everything is fine, the police are involved, charges are paid and so on? Is there a licence? If so, what kind? There is no mention of such a licence in the Bill. Is it simply a gentleman's agreement, by which the authority says, ''You've gone through the right procedures, you've informed us, and we know the scale of the problem and what we are dealing with,'' and, because there is a good relationship with the organiser, everything will get sorted out?