If your business sells food or drink and you want to place removable furniture on the highway outside your premises during your normal trading hours, you will need a pavement licence.
Before you apply
You need to read and understand the requirements set out on this page before you submit an application for a licence. We cannot proceed with your application unless you give us all the information we need.
You should talk to neighbouring businesses and occupiers about your intention to apply for a pavement licence, and take into consideration any issues they raise about noise, nuisance or similar when you submit your application.
Please read our plan requirements. Please note, the plan will be published on the licensing public register.
You should also read the following guidance from GOV.UK about the detail you need to include in your application.
Displaying notice
Before applying for a pavement licence, you must display an application notice at your premises. This must be visible to members of the public.
You must send a photo of the notice on display as part of your application.
Download the pavement licence public notice template
Furniture covered by this licence
A pavement licence allows you to use the following types of removable furniture outside your premises:
- Counters or stalls for selling or serving food or drink
- Tables, counters or shelves on which food or drink can be placed
- Chairs, benches or other forms of seating
- Umbrellas, barriers, heaters and other articles used in connection with the outdoor consumption of food or drink
Please note that all furniture and other permitted items must be either placed on wheels and/or light enough to be removed by members of your staff from the permitted areas, outside of the permitted days and hours.
Fees and prices
Pavement licences cost £267.
More information on our prices
- administration work
- carrying out pre-grant inspections
- completing any background checks that have to be undertaken
- developing policies for each of these areas
- the need for any special equipment, materials or resources required
- where permitted, a proportion of the costs of ensuring compliance by licensed businesses
- the overhead costs incurred by the licensing service
To make this as accurate as possible, our officers record the time that they spend on each of the different licence types. Where feasible, we try to streamline our processes to reduce the amount of officer input, however inevitably some licence applications require site inspections by officers.
Our licensing fees are reviewed on an annual basis, and where the cost of processing is reduced our fees will be reduced. We cannot comment on how other authorities set their fees.
Licence duration
We will grant pavement licences for a maximum of 2 years, unless we specifically state a shorter period when we grant your licence.
How to apply
You can submit an application using our online form.
Further information
Select a topic below to find out more about pavement licences.
You must display a notice at your premises on the day you submit your application, and this notice must be clearly visible to members of the public.
Once we receive your application, we will start a 14-day public consultation period (excluding Bank Holidays).
If we do not receive any objections during the 14-day consultation period, we will issue your licence for a maximum of 2 years.
If we receive any objections, our Licensing Manager/Team Leader will make a decision after considering all objections.
We can revoke your pavement licence for any of the following reasons:
- Breach of the conditions attached to the licence
- Risk to public health or safety
- Highway being obstructed
- Anti-social behaviour or public nuisance
- You provided false or misleading statements in your application
- You did not display a notice to the public for the relevant period
- All or any part of the area of the relevant highway to which the licence relates has become unsuitable for any purpose for which the licence was granted
If you already hold a premises licence which includes on-sales, under the new legislation, you will also be able to provide off-sales to customers until 31 March.
To object to a pavement licence application, email Licensing Services at: licensing@bathnes.gov.uk during the consultation period.
Business and Planning Act 2020
Temporary Alcohol Licensing Provisions
Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023
We have made the information on these web pages as comprehensive as possible. However, in attempting to simplify the law, certain requirements have been omitted. Full details of what you must do are in the relevant legislation.
Laws can and do change. We must advise that only the Courts can give an authoritative opinion on statute law.