Pub-goers get nod to spill out into car park
Licensing rules will be relaxed to permit hotels, bars and restaurants to serve alcohol outdoors
PUB car parks and hotel grounds will be able to be converted into temporary beer gardens under plans being drawn up by ministers to help the hospitality sector bounce back from the coronavirus.
Legislation due to be introduced to Parliament on Thursday is expected to include changes to the law to enable restaurants, hotels and pubs to turn their “spaces inside out” over the summer months.
According to Whitehall and industry insiders, the Business and Planning Bill will temporarily relax licensing laws to enable more companies to serve alcohol outdoors on their premises.
The Bill also contains provisions on outdoor seating, as well as making it easier for companies to close roads to hold events throughout July and August. Ministers hope it will lead to a surge in al fresco dining and drinking.
Boris Johnson is expected to touch on parts of the Bill in a speech to MPS today, with his spokesman stating yesterday that it would set out “new ways of working” and “help businesses through the summer months.” Shortly after Mr Johnson’s speech, separate guidance setting out how the hospitality industry can reopen safely from July 4 is expected to be issued.
Last night, a government source said the Bill would make it easier for councils to issue temporary events notices for restaurants, pubs and hotels to hold one-off events or to extend the hours and activities permitted under their licence. More applications for road and street closures would also be granted.
“At the moment, you [pubs and restaurants] have to specify in the plan for your licence where you are selling and serving alcohol,” a second source told The Daily Telegraph. “Beer gardens tend to be licensed already but car parks aren’t. You could have little courtyards that would be normally used for storage, car parks or land that you don’t normally license. A lot of hotels will have huge gardens but won’t have an outdoor licence.”
The proposals are said to have been inspired by recent changes made in Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital, where officials have allowed hospitality firms to extend outdoor seating across plazas, streets and squares.
Businesses are believed to have pitched for similar al fresco areas across London, including in Soho and Leicester Square.
Hotel bosses hope it will also pave the way for outdoor weddings, which are currently only permitted for Jews, Quakers and specific licensed sites for other Christians. However, The Telegraph
understands that proposals to relax laws on religious weddings outdoors have stalled, with ministers instead looking at more limited changes for civil ceremonies.
On planning, the Bill will extend planning permission deadlines in order to salvage hundreds of construction projects from delays. While planning permission usually expires after three years if work is not started, sites that were due to expire between lockdown and the end of the year will see their consent extended to next April.
To enable construction workers to observe social distancing rules more easily, work sites will also be allowed to operate for longer hours.