Every year, on the run up to December, we start to get calls about extended hours for the Christmas period. That is because the older licences still have the old fashioned hours and restrictions on them such as the hours of 10am to 10.30pm every Sunday and only being able to sell alcohol during the split times of 12 noon to 3pm and then 7pm to 10.30pm. on Christmas Day. Other newer licences may also have their own restrictive hours.

In addition to that all store owners need to be alert to the fact that both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve fall on a Sunday this year, when the permitted hours tend to be more restrictive.

It would be well worth your while double checking your permitted hours and whether you have the hours you would need to ensure a healthy trade over the festive period. If you don’t then consideration should be made to giving a Temporary Event Notice for these dates to enable longer trading.

For example, a 36 hour continuous period over New Year is commonplace and you could apply for more hours throughout the whole period. One Temporary Event Notice lasts for 7 days and so could give you all the coverage you need. However, even better is that (providing you have not used any TEN’s in 2017) is that you have have a total allocation of 21 notices for use up until the end of December which means you could extend your hours for almost all December at very minimal cost.

However, be aware that a Temporary Event Notice needs at least 5 working days notice (for a late TEN) and 10 working days’ notice (for a standard TEN). The difference between them is that if an objection is made to a late TEN by the Police or Environmental Health (the only authorities which can object) the TEN is automatically refused. A standard TEN allows for a hearing to go ahead. We have however rarely known any TEN been refused.

An example of the deadlines are below:

An extension for Friday 15th December, – a late TEN must be submitted by Thursday 7th December (by Thursday 30th November for a standard TEN)
An extension for Sunday 24 December – a late TEN must be submitted by Friday 15th December (by Friday 8 December for a standard TEN).
An extension for New Year’s Eve – a late TEN must be submitted by Friday 20th December (by Wednesday 13 December for a standard TEN).
Licensing Matters can help you with all of this so ring us on 01282 500322.

If you have any queries or concerns in the meantime don’t hesitate to contact us straight away.