Before you start
A business which uses (or proposes to use) premises for the sale of food or drink for consumption on the premises can apply for a pavement licence. Eligible businesses include public houses, cafes, bars, restaurants, snack bars, coffee shops and ice cream parlours.
A pavement licence permits the business to use furniture placed on the highway to sell or serve food or drink and/or to allow the space to be used by people for the consumption of food or drink supplied from, or in connection with the use of the premises.
The furniture which may be used
- 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
- Barriers to delineate between the licensed area and the section of the pavement that is for the use of the public
This furniture is required to be removable (not a permanent fixed structure) and must be able to be moved easily and stored away off the highway in the evening.
Consultation
Any application must be subject to consultation with the community as well as relevant council departments, for example, the Highways Department.
The consultation period is 5 working days, excluding public holidays.
Applications will be accepted for a tables and chairs display on land that is not adjacent to the business as well. In these cases, the internal consultation process will be longer.
How to apply
- You must meet the requirements set out in our pavement licence policy.
- Read the terms and conditions, which cover all pavement licences.
- For the application to be accepted you will need to pay the £100 application fee. This fee is not refundable if your application is rejected.
Uploading supporting documents
We will ask you to upload some documents. For example, public liability insurance policy and commercial waste transfer note.
- Accepted file types: Word (docx), Acrobat (pdf), Excel (xlsx), Plain text (txt)
- Zip files can't be uploaded
- We also accept photos taken on phones and tablets and the following image file types - jpeg, gif, png
- There is a maximum individual file size per document of 50MB.
What happens next
We aim to review your application within 10 working days. Pavement licence applications will be reviewed within 5 days.
We will either send you an email with the licence or we will contact you to let you know what other documents we need you to upload.
We will contact you if we need more information.
This form should take approximately ten minutes to complete.
