Business licences and permits

Businesses that are eligible to apply for a pavement licence include public houses, cafes, bars, restaurants, snack bars, coffee shops, and ice cream parlours including where such uses form an ancillary aspect of another use, for example, supermarkets, or entertainment venues which sell food and drink.

Furniture that may be used is:

• 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 connections with the outdoor consumption of food and drink.

Furniture is required to be removable i.e. not a permanent fixed structure but able to be moved easily and stored away at night. It must be related to the serving, sale and consumption of food or drink.

Advertising boards are not included in the definition of furniture within the pavement licensing regime.

The granting of a pavement licence only permits the placing of furniture on the highway. Other regulatory frameworks still apply such as the need for alcohol licences and the need to comply with registration requirements for food businesses.

Fees and charges

The application fee for a new pavement licence application is £500, and £350 for renewal of a pavement licence application. It will be issued for a period of up to 2 years (subject to any plans for future changes in use of pavement/road space).

Existing pavement licences will remain valid until the expiration date on the licence. Businesses will then need to apply for a new licence. This will be treated as a renewal application provided it is made by the licence holder, is made in respect of the same premises, and it is on the same terms as the expired licence.

Applying for a pavement licence

When submitting an application for a licence you will be asked to provide the following:

• public liability insurance certificate
• proof of ownership or other right to occupy the premises to which the pavement licence application relates
• location and site layout plan with measurements, all furniture and arrangements to comply with the national smoke free seating condition clearly shown
• furniture appearance - sketch/photograph/manufacturer's brochure showing furniture proposed.

The national smoke free seating condition seeks to ensure that customers have greater choice, so that both smokers and non-smokers are able to sit outside. The condition requires a licence-holder to make reasonable provision for seating where smoking is not permitted. This means that where businesses provide for smokers, customers will also have the option of sitting in a non-smoking area.

It is important to recognise that the threat of terrorism remains at substantial in the UK, meaning an attack is likely and therefore, the application also addresses the business' security arrangements. The information below can help businesses and individuals to combat the threat of an attack.

Advice on undertaking a risk assessment and preparing a basic response plan for a terror attack can be found on the Protect UK website.

A basic response plan should be simple actions that staff can take. They should be short, punchy bullet points e.g. secure location, contact Police etc.

ACT (Action Counter Terrorism) Awareness eLearning is a free online counter terrorism training course for all UK based companies, organisations, and individuals and should take no longer than around 1 hour to complete.

ACT Awareness eLearning provides nationally recognised corporate counter terrorism guidance to help people better understand, and mitigate against, current terrorist methodology.

Pavement licence trading guidelines

• Pavement cafés will need to cease operating and/or be removed for any period of time in order to permit maintenance, installation, special events, improvements to the public highway by the council and other bodies.
• Tables and chairs must not be placed in position outside of the permitted times.  When the licence is not in use, all tables and chairs and other furniture must stored securely inside a premises.
• Should any of the licence conditions be ignored or any furniture be left out on the pavement outside the permitted hours it will be removed and stored or disposed of at the cost of the licensee.
• An unimpeded pedestrian route must be maintained at all times for people wishing to use the pavement. 
• Emergency routes to the premises and adjacent buildings must not be obstructed.
• A Pavement Licence should not extend beyond the width of the premises frontage.
• Tables and chairs should be of an approved type and should be kept in a good state of repair. Placement of tables and chairs must allow pedestrians to use the footway parallel to the frontage of the premises.
• Furniture should be placed so as not to obstruct driver sightlines, or road traffic signs.  Care should be taken in the use of hanging baskets, awnings and protruding umbrellas. 
• The area must be operated in a safe and orderly manner so as to minimise any safety risk or nuisance.
• The operation of the area must not interfere with highway drainage arrangements.
• All food and drink remnants, spillages, bottles, cans and wrappers must regularly be removed from the pavement to reduce hazards to pedestrians.  Arrangements must be put in place to regularly check for and to remove litter and rubbish on pedestrian walkways, caused by persons using the licensed area, for a distance of up to 10 metres from the boundary of the licensed area. 
• Tables must be cleared in an efficient manner during the hours of operation.
• No fixtures, or excavations of any kind can be made to the surface of the highway without prior written approval of the council.  Any costs incurred as a result of damage to the highway, due to the positioning of tables and chairs etc, will be recovered in full from the licence holder by Hillingdon Council.
• A premises not licensed under the Licensing Act 2003 must not allow the consumption of alcohol within the licensed area.
• A premises licensed under the Licensing Act 2003 must not allow the consumption of alcohol within the licensed area outside the hours in force for the premises itself.
• The licence must be displayed on the premises with a plan of the agreed layout of the pavement café.
• The conditions of the licence and any other necessary permissions and regulations are to be adhered to. 
• The highway is to be used solely for the purpose of the licence, in line with the provisions of this licence and for no other purpose whatsoever.

Pavement licence national conditions

• Clear routes of access along the highway must be maintained, taking into account the needs of disabled people, and the recommended minimum footway widths and distances required for access by mobility impaired and visually impaired people as set out in Section 3.2 of Inclusive Mobility.
• Clear 'smoking' and 'non-smoking' areas, with 'no smoking' signage displayed in designated 'smoke-free' zones in accordance with Smoke-free (Signs) Regulations 2012.
• No ash trays or similar receptacles to be provided or permitted to be left on furniture where smoke-free seating is identified.
• Licence holders should provide a minimum 2 metre distance between non-smoking and smoking areas, wherever possible.

Apply for a pavement licence

What happens next?

An officer from the licensing team will assess your application, advise you when your application is valid and ask you to fix a notice to the premises. The notice must be easily visible and legible to the public. The notice must remain in place for the duration of the public consultation period, which is 14 calendar days beginning the day after the day that a valid application is submitted to the council. Public holidays are not included when calculating days. Please note that applications received after the offices have closed on Friday may not be assessed until Monday.

Notice of pavement licence application (Word doc, 57 KB)

We will process your licence in 28 calendar days from the day after the application is made (excluding public holidays). The notice must remain in place for the duration of the public consultation period, which is 14 calendar days beginning the day after the day that a valid application is submitted to the council.

If you have not heard from Hillingdon Council within the 14 calendar day period the application will be deemed to have been granted for 2 years.

Failed application redress

If you wish to discuss the council's decision to refuse your licence application, please email licensing@hillingdon.gov.uk or call 01895 277433. There is no statutory appeal process.

Licence holder redress - licence revocation

The decision to revoke a licence will be made in consultation with the Chair or Vice Chair of the council's Licensing Sub Committee. There is no statutory appeal process.