Solidarity from the world of theatre

I recently had a mail from Mark Pemberton, the Chief Executive of the National Operatic and Dramatic Association. It turns out that the amateur dramatics community is suffering from the act in ways that seem to be just as bad as the problems which inspired the petition. The petition doesn't explicitly cover theatre, and perhaps if I'd known about their problems I'd have tried to make a wording that was more inclusive. Having said that, many of the people visiting this site will be interested in their campaign, so I've reproduced below some text which Mark provided, describing their issues. Their web site is at http://www.noda.org.uk/

It is worth looking at the old licensing law as a comparison. Under the Theatres Act 1968, the law allowed for the sale of liquor to take place without a magistrate’s licence, providing a theatre licence was held. And bar sales before the show and in the interval are a vital source of revenue for amateur theatre groups, supplementing income from the box office and enabling the group in many cases to survive.

So if the hall used by the amateur theatre group did not have a theatre licence or a licence to serve alcohol, the theatre group itself could apply for what was known as an ‘occasional licence’. This could more accurately be described as an ‘occasional theatre licence’. What constituted an ‘occasion’ was at the discretion of the local authority, so could encompass a performance run of two weeks, and the fee for the licence could be waived for events of a charitable or educational nature. And once the group had obtained its occasional licence, it could in turn sell alcohol without a magistrate’s licence using the exemption allowed under the Theatres Act.

In the run-up to the new Licensing Act being passed, we heard the DCMS use the phrase “light touch”. Well, you can’t get more “light touch” than this. In comparison, the new law, far from being “light touch”, is in fact incredibly restrictive when it comes to Temporary Event Notices, which have replaced the old occasional licence.

As you will know there is a limit of 96 hours on how long an event can last, and a restriction on how many TENs can be issued to the premises. And there is a statutory fee of £21 for the application, as the licensing authority no longer has any discretion to waive the fee.

This has been a disaster for some of our members. A typical amateur theatre production runs for either five nights (Tuesday to Saturday) or even six nights (Monday to Saturday). If the hall used by the amateur theatre group does not have a full premises licence, then the group is in real trouble, as the 96 hour limit means it cannot perform for more than four nights on a TEN.

So why are lots of village and school halls across England and Wales not applying for a full premises licence? The word we are getting is that they find the bureaucracy and cost beyond their capabilities, so are choosing either not to get a licence at all or to get a licence that only allows for the provision of entertainment. And why would they do the latter? In the case of village halls, the answer is simple. The premises licence is free unless they choose to include the sale of alcohol in their application. So they are taking the cheap and easy option of bumping responsibility for bar sales on to the hirer, forcing the amateur theatre group to obtain a TEN.

The upshot is we have case studies of groups which are either having to close down or reduce their performance run to four nights, which is financially unviable, or they are being forced into the absurd situation of only being able to sell alcohol on four nights of a five or six night run. Not surprisingly, they are finding it harder to sell tickets on the ‘dry’ nights. And that is if the hall has not used up its quota of TENs, in which case the group cannot perform or sell alcohol at all unless it can find an alternative venue, which in many small towns and villages will prove impossible.

So how did this happen? Well, here we are not too clear. The DCMS did say in advance of the legislation that it undertook to “seek to ensure that all relevant proposed legislation, regulations, guidance and practice are checked for impact on volunteer and community activity and funding before being adopted”.

NODA did point out in its submissions in advance of the legislation being passed that the proposed limit for TENs of 72 hours was inadequate and would adversely affect amateur theatre groups. This must have registered with the DCMS as the limit was raised to 96 hours and the quota of TENs per premises raised from 5 to 12, still inadequate but at least an improvement. But quite clearly the negative impact on amateur theatre groups performing in school or village halls was not taken into account.

In subsequent correspondence between NODA and the DCMS we received the following justification for the TEN system: “The Government believes it is entirely reasonable to expect that a premises licence should be obtained for longer events that may raise serious public safety or nuisance concerns”. This appears to suggest there is a correlation between the length of an event and its capacity to cause a nuisance or endanger the public. So on this basis, a four day rock festival in a 499 capacity venue is deemed to raise fewer public safety or noise concerns than a five night run of She Stoops To Conquer in a 100 seat village hall. This, we have to say, is absurd. And in any case, the DCMS seems to admit this in saying that a premises licence should be obtained for those events which “may” raise “serious” public safety or noise concerns. So why then are all events over 96 hours subject to full premises licensing, even if they raise no or negligible safety or noise concerns? Just what is it about village hall pantomimes that scare them so much?

So what is the answer? Well, it is to find some way of enabling village and school halls to host amateur theatre groups through the provision either of free licensing that enables bar sales or through an increase in the 96 hour limit by an additional 24 or even 48 hours. Alternatively, instead of the 96 hour limit covering the start of the event to its conclusion, it should cover the actual time the event is taking place. By this I mean that in a typical amateur production run in a school or village hall, the doors open at 7pm and close at 11pm. So the entertainment and bar sales are only being delivered for a four hour period during the day. Why should the 96 hour limit include the dead hours when the show isn’t actually taking place?

Or the local authority should itself obtain a premises licence on behalf of the hall. Indeed the guidance issued to local authorities says: “To ensure that cultural diversity thrives, local authorities should consider establishing a policy of seeking premises licences from the licensing authority for public spaces within the community in their own name. This could include, for example, village greens, market squares, community and village halls and similar public areas. Performers would then have no need to obtain a licence to enable them to give a performance in these places.” This is obviously not happening in practice and we would be interested to hear what the DCMS plans to do about making local authorities establish such a policy.

We are aware the Licensing Minister has announced a loosening of the restrictions on village halls, enabling the hall to be treated in the same way as clubs, thereby reducing the bureaucracy involved in selling alcohol. However, we have no news as to when this will be implemented.

The Licensing Minister has suggested to NODA that one solution would be for the amateur theatre group itself to apply for a “time-limited premises licence”. We have to say this suggestion is impractical. Why would an amateur theatre group spend upwards of £600 and go through the bureaucratic process of obtaining a premises licence for just one week of performances, and then have to go through it all again every time they wanted to put on a production?

A more sensible solution would be to adopt the provisions contained in the Licensing (Scotland) Act. This allows for voluntary organisations to be issued with four occasional licences per year for a period of more than four days and 12 for a period of less than four days every 12 months, to a maximum of 56 days. And the Theatres Act 1968 has not been repealed in Scotland. If a similar provision existed in England and Wales, it would solve at a stroke the very severe problems the Licensing Act has imposed on our members.