Keasim Ltd Against City Of Glasgow Licensing Board
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judge | Sheriff S Reid |
| Neutral Citation | [2021] SC GLW 57 |
| Court | Sheriff Court |
| Date | 08 October 2021 |
| Docket Number | GLW-B345-21 |
| Published date | 14 October 2021 |
SHERIFFDOM OF GLASGOW AND STRATHKELVIN AT GLASGOW
[2021] SC GLW 57
GLW-B345-21
NOTE OF SHERIFF S REID
in the cause
KEASIM LTD
Pursuer
against
CITY OF GLASGOW LICENSING BOARD
Defender
Pursuer: Mr R. Skinner, Advocate; TLT LLP, Glasgow
Defender: Mr J. Findlay QC; Mr J. Kiddie, Advocate; Glasgow City Council Legal Departme nt
Glasgow, 8 October 2021
Summary
[1] What is an occasional licence, in terms of section 56 of the Licensing (Scotland) Act
2005?
[2] Should such a licence be granted only for a special event or occasion such as a
wedding, birthday, or fund-raising dinner?
[3] Does an occasional licence application cease to be an occasional licence application if
it forms part of a series of applications for consecutive licences extending, in aggregate, over
many weeks or months? Put another way, is a licensing board entitled to decide that a series
of consecutive occasional licence applications extending over a lengthy period constitutes an
“abuse of process” or a “circumvention” of the statutory procedure applicable to
2
applications for a full premises licence by avoiding, among other things, the wider
consultation and more intense scrutiny applicable to the latter?
[4] These questions arise in the context of the pursuer’s applications for seven
consecutive occasional licences to operate a so-called “pop-up bar” from a vacant site in
Glasgow’s Merchant City. The site lies at the corner of Candleriggs and Wilson Street. It
was originally proposed to be occupied by Selfridges, but that deal fell through many years
ago, and it has since lain empty as a gap site. It is presently earmarked for residential
development at an unknown date in the future. The pursuer obtained the landowner’s
consent to occupy the site from 24 April 2021 until the beginning of October 2021.
Accordingly, the pursuer lodged seven applications for a series of consecutive occasional
licences running, in aggregate, for a period of 101 days, from 26 April 2021 to 4 August 2021.
The pursuer intended to apply the brand name of “Festival Village” to its pop-up bar.
[5] A year ago, a series of similar consecutive occasional licences, covering an aggregate
period of 68 days (from 14 July 2020 to 28 September 2020), was sought by the pursuer, and
granted by the defender, for the same site.
[6] However, this year, the defender refused the pursuer’s seven applications
purportedly on the basis that the grant of the applications would be inconsistent with the
licensing objectives of securing public safety and preventing public nuisance, in terms of
sections 4(1)(b) & (c) and section 59(6)(c) of the Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 (“the
2005 Act”).
[7] Although I have some considerable sympathy for the approach taken by the
defender’s licensing board, I have concluded that it has fallen into error in a number of
respects, as explained more fully below. Accordingly I upheld the appeals; I quashed the
decisions of the defender made on 6 April 2021 to refuse the pursuer’s occasional licence
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