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A sticking point in the law
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A case in point concerns Pizza Express, the company’s pizza restaurants in St Helier and St Brelade, and the Licensing Law. In essence, the company missed two deadlines for renewing its licences to serve alcohol because, we are told, of management changes. As a result, neither of its premises will be able to serve alcohol for at least a month after Christmas Eve.
As the company’s legal representative told the Licensing Bench, this will have ‘swingeing consequences’ for the business, which can expect trade to diminish dramatically. But there will be wider effects too.
The restaurants’ clientele will, if they remain loyal, be deprived of what can be called the full Pizza Express experience, and, more importantly, jobs could be in jeopardy. In addition, the economic impact will not be limited to the company. Their suppliers will also feel the pinch.
The Constable of St Helier, Simon Crowcroft, informed the Bench that he and the Constable of St Brelade, Steve Pallet, were keen to find a way to keep the restaurants open. He and his colleague will be as aware as anyone that Pizza Express, which has been trading successfully and respectably in the Island for decades, runs a very tight ship in licensing terms. They will also understand how popular the restaurants are with Islanders and visitors.
Unfortunately, the Bench, which clearly has a duty to stick to the letter of the law, could see no way forward, which means that the next opportunity to begin the process of renewing the licence will be at a special Licensing Assembly on 24 January.
However, although the legal issue was, against the background of the importance of tight licensing regulations, the crucial factor, it is also possible to see the problem as a matter of counter-productive bureaucratic rigidity. With so much at stake not only for a business and its employees but also for those who value the services they provide, a get-out procedure to be used when fully respectable organisations make honest mistakes would surely be to everyone’s advantage.
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