A Soho charity has been left with a legal bill topping £27,000 after losing a court battle against a gin distillery in Mayfair.
The Soho Society challenged Westminster Council’s decision to grant an alcohol licence to The Green Room Distillery, raising safety fears and concerns about a possible explosion.
But Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring comprehensively dismissed the society’s case, and concluded it must pay for at least some of the costs of the court proceedings.
When it was suggested last week that the bill may be as high as £44,000, barrister James Rankin told the court: “It will bankrupt the society.”
Judge Goldspring has now made a costs order totalling £27,500, recognising the society’s “fragile financial position” and seeking to avoid driving it out of business.
Tim Lord, chair of the Soho Society, told The Standard it will not face bankruptcy but cannot afford to mount an appeal.
“Although our reserves are depleted, the Soho Society is able to pay the costs from its reserves which had been built up for this situation over a number of years”, he said.
The case revolved around a licensing application by Green Room, an award-winning gin distillery housed in a Grade II* building in Meard Street, Mayfair.
The Soho Society objected when the council agreed to grant a premises licence last summer, and then mounted a challenge in the courts on public safety grounds.
It argued that the storage and use of flammable ethanol poses a fire risk and the council had not imposed proper conditions to tackle the risk.
At the court hearing, Peter Cave, the freeholder of the property above the distillery “expressed alarm at the idea of flammable substances being introduced beneath his home”.
In his ruling, Judge Goldspring highlighted that distilling alcohol is not an activity covered by the 2003 Licensing Act, and removing the Green Room’s licence would do nothing to stop the distillation part of the business from continuing.
The judge also noted that the council’s grant of a licence to the business would allow it to impose some conditions aimed at fire safety, while refusing a licence could leave the authority powerless to intervene.
Westminster Council spent more than £68,000 on the legal battle, and will now recover £10,000 from the costs order. It had already voluntarily agree not to seek back more than £40,000 of internal costs it incurred.
Green Room asked for a costs order totalling £27,166, saying it should not be “required to pick up the tab for the Soho Society’s failed attempt”. Judge Goldspring has ordered the society to pay the business £17,500.
He said costs had been run up legitimately by the business and the council, and suggested the main argument “that the distillation activity in question was not licensable” should have been recognised as “obviously correct in law from the outset”.
Mr Lord said the society is “disappointed” with the ruling in the case, and it “does not have the resources for an appeal”.
He suggested the judge had not addressed its suggestion of a licensing condition preventing distillation on safety grounds, and warned of “dangerous unintended consequences” from current planning rules.
“This was an opportunity to clarify the position and the law using the Licensing Act which clearly does cover fire safety”, he said. “It remains unresolved and the uncertainty is causing considerable anxiety for the elderly couple that live above the proposed distillery site.”
