IoL - ALL THINGS LICENSING
made in good time, as set out in the principles of the Gedling decision, the licence holder should not be penalised if the authority hasn’t dealt with it.
Renewals are a two-way process and provided a complete applica- tion is made within good time,
Prosecutions are time consuming and costly for local authorities, and if a renewal application has been made in good time but not determined by the authority, then under most circumstances this would present a justifiable defence as happened in Cartledge and Gedling.
Each circumstance is different and the Gedling decision however doesn’t give a blanket permission for drivers to continue working if they are waiting for their licence to be renewed.
What if for example a driver had submitted their paperwork but not paid the required fee and their licence expired? This would mean that a complete application had not been made and as such, the council would only begin processing the application once the required fee had been paid and the driver should not work until the new permission is granted.
What if for example a driver had submitted a complete application an hour before expiration? As this would only give the council a very short window to renew, it is probably unreasonable to expect the application to be turned around in this time.
There are going to be many permeations of how appli- cations could be made (or not) and in what time period before expiry, with the ultimate question of ‘can I continue working’ being dependant on the exact circumstance of each case.
However if a complete renewal application has been
then any difficulties and uncertainties are taken out of the process, as these take up additional time and divert staff away from being able to process applications.
Most councils will not want to keep licence holders out of work and will do their best to accommodate the trade. However there have been some examples circu- lating of councils not accepting applications for new drivers, or other potentially unjustifiable delays.
At a time of national driver shortages and an economy seeking to recover from restrictions, this should not be occurring and is something that the Institute of Licensing has highlighted with members and will continue to do so.
Therefore, if members of the trade are experiencing problems with their authority not accepting applica- tions, we would encourage them to take this matter up via the council’s complaints process and further if this does not resolve the issue.
The Gedling case is just another example of the events in the world of licensing which are likely to affect the licensed trade. I emphasise the importance about being ‘in the know’ about licensing issues and what your local authority should (or shouldn’t) be doing, with the reasons behind it.
I would therefore encourage members of the trade to join the Institute of Licensing to keep on top of the latest goings on -
www.instituteoflicensing.org
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