A temporary free licensing scheme for pavement cafés, designed to help Covid-hit Belfast, is set to continue for another year despite complaints from waste collectors, city street cleaners and neighbouring businesses.
At Belfast City Council ’s Licensing Committee this week, elected members voted for a year long extension to the free temporary licensing scheme, against the advice of council officers, who promoted the option of returning to a fixed five year licensing scheme, with fees totalling £445 over the period.
The scheme was introduced to assist the hospitality sector during the pandemic as the council had not yet implemented 2016 legislation “due to the lack of technical guidance” from Stormont.
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The temporary licence meant businesses could use the pavement café area whilst their licence application was being determined, and statutory agencies were encouraged to take a very liberal view when considering applications to allow the hospitality businesses to reopen.
It led to larger pavement café areas than would have been agreed in normal circumstances, as well as Stormont introducing parklets and closing roads for pavement café space.
Currently there are 85 pavement cafés in Belfast with temporary licences, with areas such as Ann Street in particular causing some controversy . All temporary licences were set to run out this month.
A council officer's report states. “A few licensed pavement cafés, in particular in the city centre, are now becoming a source of complaint from adjacent businesses and from members of the public.
“The nature of those complaints relates to the size of the area being used, the area affecting footfall and trade to adjacent businesses, furniture not being removed at the end of trade, and the impact on early morning deliveries.
“We also have reports that the council’s cleansing and waste management crews are experiencing difficulties in getting their vehicles into empty bins and cleaning the streets as pavement café furniture is not being removed at the end of trade.
“Additionally, the pavement is not being cleaned and litter generated by customers using the area is not being collected by the business. This is contributing to the ongoing cleanliness issues in the city.”
The report goes on to propose a permanent licence scheme, and a return to the fee structure. It states: “Given the circumstances under which the temporary scheme was introduced, the council waived any fees associated with a pavement café application.
“In 2017, the council agreed that fees should be charged for a pavement café licence and determined the grant application fee to be £225.00, with an annual licence fee of £55.00 for the ensuing four years. No annual licence fee is charged in the first year.
“It is proposed that in implementing the pavement café scheme, we also introduce the associated fees agreed by the council in 2017.
“In doing so, this would be similar in approach to several other councils. The financial implications of not introducing fees for five year pavement café licences will be lost income of at least £37,825, based solely on the current number of applications granted at present.”
Councillors did not accede, and instead supported a proposal by Sinn Féin to extend the temporary licence for a year. Councillor Claire Canavan told the chamber: “I know the temporary process was put in place to assist businesses in the road to recovery during the pandemic, but I think it is still safe to say there are a lot of businesses still on that road.
“In fact they have actually been set back, because now we are into a cost of living crisis, and there are actually going to be businesses forced to close. I would question the timing of this - we are at a time where we should be seen to help businesses.”
She added: “We can review it after that time, but in the meantime the council can consult with businesses about the permanent scheme and the guidelines. So when we come to review it, most of the issues the businesses have will hopefully have been resolved.”
A council officer said: “The message through the pandemic was a very soft approach to get out there, and to be honest, we haven’t been taking a strong enforcement line. With a permanent scheme we would step that up, to deal with ones that weren’t licensed and those that weren’t compliant.” The officer stated that both licensed and unlicensed cafés were to blame for the cleanliness issues.
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