Wedding celebrations could fall flat

If licensees want to open later on the day of the Royal Wedding, Friday April 29, they will have to apply to their local licensing boards to open later, as Scottish licensing authorities, unlike their English counterparts, are not providing a blanket extension of trading hours. Each Scottish board can decide whether to grant an extra hour to all premises in its area, or they can opt to get individual licence holders to apply for the extra hour. Glasgow has granted the extra hour to all pubs, but elsewhere it could be a different story.
Patrick Browne, Chief Executive of the SPBA, says, “We’ve written to all the licensing boards in Scotland about extending the licensing hours to 1am on Saturday and Sunday morning. We’ve received responses from around a third and they have been very mixed. We’re a bit disappointed.”
DRAM Editor Susan Young commented, “I would have thought that the licensing boards could have saved themselves a lot of work with a blanket extension for their individual areas. With Councils across the country looking at budget cuts, surely the most cost effective way of dealing with this special celebratory day would be to take this simple step, instead of having to deal with each request on a individual basis. I hope the powers that be see sense.”