Pavement licence

You are required to apply for a Pavement Licence if you want to display tables and chairs or other relevant furniture on pavements.

Any use of furniture placed on pavements to sell or serve food or drink, or to allow people to consume any food or drink supplied from or connected with the premises, must be licensed.

The furniture may include:

• counters or stalls for selling or serving food or drink
• tables, counters or shelves on which food or drink can be placed
• chairs, benches or other forms of seating
• umbrellas, barriers and other articles used in connection with the outdoor consumption of food or drink

This furniture must be removable; it must not be a permanent fixed structure. It is required to be moved easily and stored away.  

Requirements

Applicants must be aged over 18.

All roads in the borough require a 2 meter clearance from the edge of the kerb or any street furniture before any display may start, therefore the measurements submitted on the application form must allow for this clearance. 

Length of licence

New pavement licence applications received after 1 October 2024 will expire 1 year after the date of approval.

Renewals of existing licences with an expiry date of 30 September 2024 will start on 1 October 2024 and will expire on 30 September 2025.

Applications that will be rejected

An application will be rejected if it prevents traffic from:

• entering the relevant highway at a place where such traffic could normally enter it (ignoring any pedestrian planning order or traffic order made in relation to the highway)
• passing along the relevant highway
• having normal access to premises adjoining the relevant highway
• prevents any use of vehicles which is permitted by a pedestrian planning order or which is not prohibited by a traffic order
• prevents engineers or other statutory bodies having access to any apparatus of theirs around the highway
• prevents the operator of an electronic communications code network having access to any electronic communications apparatus kept installed for the purposes of that network

Accepted licences

A pavement licence may be granted by a local authority subject to such conditions as it considers reasonable. We may publish standard conditions subject to which it proposes to grant pavement licences. 

Revoked licences

We may revoke a licence if some or all of the part of the relevant highway to which the licence relates, has become unsuitable in relation to what the licence was initially granted for. As a result, it may:

• become a risk to public health or safety
• cause anti-social behaviour or public nuisance
• cause the highway to be obstructed 

Your licence will also be revoked if:

• anything stated by the licence-holder in their application was false or misleading
• the licence-holder did not comply with the duty in section 2(5) of the Business and Planning Act 2020 which requires that a person who applies for a pavement licence must:
  • on the day the application is made, fix a notice of the application to the premises so that the notice is readily visible to, and can be read easily by members of the public who are not on the premises
  • ensure that the notice remains in place until the end of the public consultation period

Apply for a pavement licence

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