Licensees in Easter Ross could face a 200-mile-plus round trip to Wick to attend quarterly board meetings. Similarly, publicans in Dingwall might have to travel to Portree to secure their liquor licences.

Under the reorganisation, the administration of alcohol licensing will be delivered by three divisional boards instead of the previous eight.

Wick will be the administration centre for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross. Portree will be the centre for Ross, Skye and Lochaber, whilst Inverness will service Inverness, Nairn and Badenoch and Strathspey.

David Edes, proprietor at the Rigger Bar in Alness, complained: "The depute clerk for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, Fiona Sinclair, is trying to be very helpful on this issue and from what I understand from her the board meetings are going to be something of a 'moveable feast' and might not be held in one regular location. However if licensees are expected to travel from Easter Ross to Wick for a licensing board meeting it's going to be a huge inconvenience.

"Similarly, if licensees from Dingwall have to travel to Portree it will take them a whole day.

"If they are going to change the system at all, then they should have one central licensing board in Inverness because most licensees would be able to find other matters to attend to there – such as going to the cash and carry.

"But there's nothing we could do in Wick.

"Why don't they have one central licensing board in Inverness, and instead of having one meeting a quarter have three meetings a quarter, one for each area.

"It's not just liquor licensing this is going to affect – it's going to be for taxis, scrap metal dealers, window cleaners, houses in multiple occupancy, so it has major implications.

"It councillors are going to have to travel to Wick and other locations for board meetings it's going to be very expensive to the taxpayer because they'll be claiming travel allowances. It sounds to me that the council have not thought this out properly."

Neil Campbell, who owns the Royal Hotel in Cromarty, and is the area representative of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association (SLTA), said: "We do support the need for change but there are many concerns.

"In the past, with eight boards, you were dealing with local councillors who knew the publicans concerned and knew the local issues involved. Now, you could have a Lochaber councillor determining an application on the Black Isle with no local knowledge whatsoever."

And Ramsay McGhee, the SLTA's area manager for Inverness, the Highlands and Islands, said he had already put his concerns about the new proposals in writing.

Mr McGhee said: "If you have a pub in Fortrose, for example, the licensee could find himself having to attend board meetings in Fort William or Portree.

"It's all very well taking an hour out to attend a board meeting in Dingwall, but it's a different story if you have to take a day out to go to Portree."

Mr McGhee, a former senior Northern Constabulary policeman, pointed out that the new boards also coincided with new the Licensing Scotland Act 2005 coming into effect, which will now require pubs and hotels to have premise licences as well as personal licences.

"This is going to turn the Licensing Act on its head," he said. "The new board members will be relatively inexperienced and they will have to undergo statutory training, and we also have concerns about the work load which lies ahead for the administration staff.

"They are going to be faced with a mammoth task because there is a huge amount of paperwork involved in the new licences."

Donald Somerville, the Inverness-based clerk to the Highland Licensing Board, said the first board meeting for the Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross area would be held in Dornoch on June 12 – but it was not yet decided where they would be held thereafter.

He said: "One of the things we have been looking at are ways and means of cutting down the necessity for licensees to attend board meetings. We will be asking authority from the new licensing boards for them only to require licensees to attend when there's an objection to their licence or they are seeking something beyond board policy.

"As regards where the boards will meet, nothing has been settled yet. The board meetings might be held more frequently to begin to suit the public but it will be up to the members to decide."

northstar@spp-group.com

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend