At your station

The sale of alcohol at petrol station forecourts has been a vexed issue for years. Jeffrey Leib looks at recent developments.

When East Hampshire District Council recently granted a licence to the Shell petrol station in Whichers Gate Road, Rowlands Castle, they didn't realise they would be challenged by another council.

Earlier this month, Rowlands Castle Parish Council took on multi-national oil company Shell and their parent local authority at Fareham magistrates' court, and convinced the court that the petrol station was really a garage under the Licensing Act 2003 and therefore legally unable to sell alcohol.

The traditonal approach – under the Licensing Act 1964 – was that garages were unable to sell alcohol. This was somewhat liberated when the Licensing Act 2003 came into force in 2005, although lack of parliamentary time meant that the relevant part of the Act escaped detailed scrutiny and was rushed through to enable the legislation to be passed in whole.

As the position now stands, there is nothing to stop a garage – which the Act describes as a place selling fuel or maintaining vehicles – from holding a premises licence. However, that licence is ineffective if the premises are shown to be used as a garage and it is this question which has vexed practitioners, licensing committees and courts for many years. Major oil companies have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds trying to convince tribunals that their forecourt businesses are in fact shops that just happen to also sell petrol, and are equally permitted to sell alcohol.

The generally accepted way to approach these matters was laid down by the High Court in 1994 in Green v Justices for Inner London (1994) and in R v Liverpool Crown Court, ex parte Goodwin (1998). Those cases centred on an analysis of sales and turnover figures to give a picture of the intensity of the premises' use.

More recently, the Administrative Court considered the question in R (on the application of Murco Petroleum Ltd.) v Bristol City Council [2010] EWHC 1992 (Admin). The court said it was quite proper for licensing authorities to take account of trading figures when considering applications for licences.

Rowlands Castle Parish Council was awarded its full costs after the appeal, and Shell said that it is considering an appeal to the High Court.  

According to a leading licensing solicitor who has a large client base in this area, there are now more than 2,500 garages with alcohol licences - up from just two in 1994 when licensing legislation changed. Market analysis suggests there are just over 3,200 forecourt businesses in the UK, employing 43,000 people but with a decline in annual growth of 8% between 2008 and 2013.

Other cases

This isn't the first and no doubt not the last case in this complex field.

The Shell application follows a recent highly-publicised attempt by West Yorkshire Police to curtail alcohol sales in two Huddersfield petrol stations. Earlier this year the Police asked Kirklees Council to look at the garages, alleging that they were acting in breach of section 176.  

After considering the evidence, the Council decided that the premises were not primarily used as garages and could continue to sell alcohol. They dismissed the police's evidence of observing petrol sales on three occasions over a relatively short period and the links to actual real crime and disorder (a key criterion for making decisions under the Licensing Act). Instead, councillors preferred the garages' evidence of sales figures that showed more customers used the shop than just buying fuel.

Undeterred, West Yorkshire Police successfully prevented a 24-hour licence being granted to the Total garage in New Hey Road, Huddersfield in June. Total's representative told the council meeting that petrol stations all over the country were having to find new ways to compete, and alcohol was part of the convenience store offer or customers would take their business elsewhere.

He said half of the customers visiting the site only brought fuel, whilst some of the other half who used the shop also brought fuel.

Meanwhile, magistrates in Leeds decided last month that "non-garage related signage" and the environmental setting of the premises were relevant when deciding whether premises were a garage. The court had been asked to look at a village garage which was the main retail outlet for much of the week. The local grocery store was allowed to sell alcohol, and there were several pubs nearby.

The court decided the premises were not primarily used as a garage, and allowed the appeal for the garage to sell alcohol. They accepted photographs of shelving showing non-motoring products as evidence, and that it did not matter if customers had to drive to the garage to buy things from it.

In East Grinstead, an application by the Shell garage in London Road for a round-the-clock licence has appalled local councillors already battling to reduce drink-fuelled incidents in the town.

Councillors on Mid-Sussex District Council have said the application works against their efforts to achieve Purple Flag status for their management of the local night-time economy and a bid to attract more tourists to the area.

Ilford Councillors will be asked to rule on a licence application for the Shell garage in Southend Road, South Woodford this week, which has also applied for a 24-hour alcohol and late night-refreshment licence.

Licensingpractitioner.com understands that the Home Office, which is currently revising its statutory guidance to licensing authorities under the 2003 Act, has been asked to review the section on licensing garages to clarify the factors they might take into account.

Jeffrey Leib is editor of Licensingpractitioner.com.