Statement of Licensing Policy (2008) WCC - Westminster City Council

5. The number of public entertainment licences in the West End more than doubledfrom 85 in 1992 to 184 in 2002; with 121 of these premises closing at 03:00 or later. 15In 2002, premises in the West End Stress Area with entertainment licences couldaccommodate 80,690 people.6. The number of licensed night cafés in Westminster nearly doubled from 80 in 1992to 155 in 2002 16 as did the number in the West End from 48 in 1992 to 88 in 2002.They have the capacity to hold 7,000 customers. 17 In the Edgware Road Stress Areathe number of licensed night cafés more than doubled from 11 in 1992 to 28 in2002 having the capacity to hold approximately 1,400 customers. In Queensway,they increased from 2 in 1992 to 7 in 2002 with a capacity for 400 customers. Manypremises with night café licences only operate a takeaway service late at night; thenumber of people they serve is many times greater than the numbers they can holdunder the terms of their licence.7. The Licensing Act 2003, which came fully into operation in November 2005, haschanged the whole basis of licensing so that there are no longer separate publicentertainment, late night refreshment and liquor licensing regimes. Licensableactivities that were authorised by these previous regimes are now authorised underthe Licensing Act 2003. The Licensing Act 2003 removed the need to hold a licenceto provide cold food and drink after 23:00 (midnight for take-away food and drink) butit created a requirement for the provision of hot food and drink in premises which hadbeen previously able to provide it under a liquor licence. As a result of these changesdata in licences granted under the Licensing Act 2003 are not directly comparable withdata on licences granted under the previous regimes.8. The number premises licences held in November 2007 was 2960. This is less than thenumbers taken from records of liquor licences granted by the magistrates’ courts. Thisis due to two reasons; the failure to delete licenses that were no longer valid from themagistrates’ records of liquor licences and numerous liquor licences being held forpremises which now hold one. An example would be a major department store which15 Town Centres Ltd, 2001. West End Entertainment Impact Study. (pg. 39)16 WCC Licensing Service: Night Cafés database17 Town Centres Ltd. 2001 West End Entertainment Impact Study131