Vale of White Horse District Council
Abbey House, Abbey Close,
Abingdon, OX14 3JE
Email: comments@whitehorsedc.gov.uk
Telephone: 01235 520202

Vale of White Horse District Council

Alcohol and entertainment licences - club premises licence

Clubs (such as the Royal British Legion, working men's, cricket or rugby clubs) are generally organisations where members join together for a particular social, sporting or political purpose and then combine to purchase alcohol in bulk for its members.

The clubs carry on activities from premises to which public access is restricted and alcohol is supplied other than for profit. For these reasons the 2003 Act preserves aspects of earlier alcohol licensing law which applied to "registered members clubs" and affords clubs special treatment outside the normal premises licence arrangements.

Clubs which meet specified criteria set out in the 2003 Act are known as "qualifying clubs" and the authority under which they may supply alcohol and conduct other "qualifying club activities" from their premises is a club premises certificate issued by the licensing authority.

The grant of a club premises certificate means that a club is entitled to certain benefits, which include the authority to supply alcohol to its members and sell it to guests without the need for any member or employee to hold a personal licence, and the absence of a requirement to specify a designated premises supervisor. There are also more limited rights of entry for the police and other authorised persons, as the premises are considered private and not generally open to the public.

Apply for club premises certificate 

You must apply to the Vale's Licensing Unit. You need to submit the following documents:

• A completed club premises certificate application form. This form can be downloaded from the right of the page.  
• A detailed plan of the premises to the scale of 1:100. 
• Payment. The fee is dependant upon the rateable value of the premises. If you do not know the rateable value of the premises you can check it on the Valuation Office website. Then look up the fee scale on the Department of Culture Media and Sport website. You can make payment by credit or debit card and you can also pay by cheque. Cheques should be made payable to Vale of White Horse District Council.

You need to make seven copies of the application documents. The first with the fee should be sent to the Vale of White Horse District Council Licensing Unit, Abbey House, Abingdon, OX14 3JE and one copy to each of the responsible authorities - see the attachment on the right for contact details of these authorities. 

When applying for a club premises certificate, please also consult the Pool of conditions document, which can be downloaded from the right of the page. This gives details of conditions which you may wish to voluntarily attach to your licence application.

You must also advertise your application, both on the premises and in the local newspaper - see below for how to do this.

Apply to vary a club premises certificate

You must apply to the local authority that issued the club premises certificate if you want to change the hours or licensable activities for the club and submit the following documents:

• A completed application to vary a club premises certificate - this form can be downloaded from the right of the page.
• A detailed plan of the premises to the scale of 1:100. 
• Payment. The fee is dependant upon the rateable value of the premises. If you do not know the rateable value of the premises you can check it on the Valuation Office website. Then look up the fee scale on the Department of Culture Media and Sport website. You can make payment by credit or debit card and you can also pay by cheque. Cheques should be made payable to Vale of White Horse District Council.

You need to make seven copies of the application documents. The first with the fee should be sent to the Vale of White Horse District Council Licensing Unit, Abbey House, Abingdon, OX14 3JE and one copy to each of the responsible authorities - see the attachment on the right for contact details of these authorities. 

You must also advertise your application, both on the premises and in the local newspaper.

How to advertise on the premises
The notice must be advertised on the premises for a period of no less than 28 consecutive days starting on the day after the day on which the application was given to the relevant licensing authority.

The notice must be A4 or larger, pale blue with black text printed legibly in black ink or typed in black, in a font size equal to or larger than 16 point. In all cases the notice must be displayed prominently at or on the premises to which the application relates where it can be conveniently read from the exterior of the club premises.

The notice must contain a brief description of the proposed variation and include:

• The name of the club 
• The postal address of the premises, if any, or if there is no postal address for the premises, a description of those premises sufficient to enable the location and extent of the premises to be identified. 
• The postal address and the web address where the register of the licensing authority is kept and where and when the record of the application may be inspected. The Licensing Unit is based at the Vale of White Horse District Council, Abbey House, Abingdon, OX14 3JE. Application records can be viewed Monday to Friday 8.45am-5pm.
• The date by which an interested party or responsible authority may make representations to the relevant licensing authority (within 28 days of the application being received by the licensing authority starting on the day after the day on which the application was received by the licensing authority). 
• That representations shall be made in writing. 
• That it is an offence knowingly or recklessly to make a false statement in connection with an application and the maximum fine for which a person is liable on summary conviction for the offence is up to £5,000. 

How to advertise in the local newspaper
You must publishing a notice on at least one occasion during the period of ten working days starting on the day after the day on which the application was given to the licensing authority. The advertisement must contain the same information as posted on the premises.