Subscribe

Licensing appeals - costs

In a case recently reported (25/2/2010), the High Court has held that where the holder of two premises licences in respect of the same premises had brought proceedings to revoke those licenses entirely upon herself by her conduct, then despite her success on appeal (albeit by retaining a licence only in the most restrictive terms), a district judge had been entitled to award costs against her in the sum of £20,000.

This case (and the conduct of the premises licence holder) may be extreme but it is a cautionary reminder to operators that even if successful on a licensing appeal, costs are not necessarily going to ‘follow the event’.

See SHEEJA PRASANNAN v KENSINGTON & CHELSEA ROYAL LONDON BOROUGH COUNCIL [2010] EWHC 319 (Admin)

John Gaunt