Mike Fennell The Politics Show South West

Polperro Fishermen's Choir needs blessing to perform

This summer the first major reform of the licensing laws in more than 30 years is beginning to have a real impact.

Basically all aspects of alcohol, entertainment and late night licensing are under one roof - and they are administered by local authorities rather than by the courts.

Change invariably causes difficulties but the new system has left the organisers of many public entertainments events floundering.

Not to mention many vexed village hall committees ... those that run functions which would normally involve a bar.

Choir affected

During the summer the Polperro Fishermen's Choir has performed on the quayside on behalf of various charities for decades.

But this week's event was almost scuppered by the new licensing regulations.

As a result the organisers needed to have a Temporary Events Notice, which they should have applied for 10 days before the performance.

But they were a day late and they faced having to cancel.

But the choir's chairman, Brian Young, said they found what they hoped was a loophole:

"The only way round it was to find a minister to come and say a prayer and turn it into a religious event.

"Luckily tonight we had a Minister who could come at the last minute and save the day."

Expensive licence?

Each licence costs �21 - which is a big chunk out of the money the choir would otherwise give to charity, according to Murray Collings, who has been singing in the choir for more than 50 years:

"It is going to kill many events we put on. Sometimes the collection would perhaps be �120.

Well take �21 out of that and it is not worth the choir coming, 30 men, plus the collectors coming and standing and putting on a performance."

Because of the radical changes the licensing authority, in this case, Caradon Council, is taking a softy softly approach.

Environmental health officer, Martin Gregory, whose department now looks after licensing matters, said there had been confusion: "Some people have been slow on the uptake, certainly those that rarely hold events or those that did not need to have licences before.

"I mean we have been using the publicity and trying to get through that side but we still know of events that haven't got the licence in place, obviously we're chasing those up."

Volunteers not keen on being sole licensee

Committees bemused

Many village hall committees are also bemused by the new regulations.

They are no longer able to sell alcohol at more than 12 events a year, if they remain unlicensed.

Fine for some, but a real struggle for larger village halls like the one at Chacewater.

Brenda Bailey said it used to accommodate 30 to 40 events a year: "Now we can only have 12 and it makes a lot of difference to fund-raising activities in the village and people who want to use this lovely hall for things like weddings, family events, 50th birthday parties and so on because they cannot have a bar and sell alcohol."

The alternative is a licence which is expensive ... and as things stand mean one named individual being responsible.

This is viewed with extreme reluctance by the volunteers who run village halls.

Government relents?

The Government has indicated it is prepared to consider removing the requirement for one person to be the designated supervisor but it won't budge on the number of Temporary Events Notices.

The Government says that it is going to keep the limit on public entertainment licences in order to protect local residents from excessive noise, nuisance and other disturbances but they indicated the matter will kept under review.

But the justification found little support on the opposition benches.

The Liberal Democrat MP for Truro, Matthew Taylor was scornful: "The idea that somebody's going to organise a noisy all-night rave in your local village hall just doesn't add up and once Ministers admitted they'd had no complaints to lead to this legislation you have to ask why they bothered with the legislation in the first place."

A thought that has certainly crossed the minds of members of Polperro's Fishermen's Choir, who now have to sing for their licence before they can even start raising money for charity.

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