Several licensed premises across Stirling and district could risk losing their licences as a result of personal licence holders failing to have them renewed in time.
The latest figures from Stirling Council suggest that almost half of Stirling and district’s personal licence holders, whose licences were issued on or before September 2009, have still to meet Friday’s absolute deadline to apply for renewal.
Stirling Council has confirmed that up to 132 personal licence holders urgently need to apply to get their licences renewed.
These applications must be received by Friday, in order for the council to process applications. Any licensed premises that fails to have anyone with an up-to-date personal licence risks breaking the law.
Stirling landlord and honorary president of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association Paul Waterson, has described the situation as “chaotic”.
He told us: “We’ve been trying to get the message out for a year and a half. It’s chaotic.”
The Golden Lion Hotel owner explained that there is normally a requirement for personal licence holders to undergo training and receive a certificate too in order to apply for renewal. However, the Scottish Government has relaxed this requirement. There is now not a requirement for applicants to have done the refresher training before Friday - but they must complete the training before their licence expires.
Mr Waterson said that applying for renewal was not “the most difficult thing to do” and that “numerous licensing lawyers” were contacting the 40,000 personal licence holders across the country.
Mr Waterson said: “There’s a lot of panicking going on. It’s getting the word out there.”
It’s estimated that around one third of Scottish personal licence holders first obtained their licence on or before the introduction of the regime which came into effect in September 2009. Those 10-year licences are now due for renewal.
As a result of Scotland’s councils being hit with hundreds of applications to process in a short space of time, councils are now being given until February 2020 to process applications. However, the deadline for applications is still this Friday.
The latest figures the Stirling Observer have from Stirling Council is that they have received applications from 140 of the 272 licences due for renewal. Only at least 30 have been processed so far.
A Stirling Council spokesperson said: “Licence holders should submit their licences as soon as possible before the deadline of May. 31”
He added: “All applicants still need to undergo the necessary training. In order to help progress the applications, we have agreed that if applicants are not in possession of the required certificates they can still send in their application before the final deadline. The certificates would need to be provided at a future date.
“Any individual who is unable to provide evidence of training should contact the team as soon as possible before the deadline of May 31."
