Important changes for management committees of community buildings
ACRE and the Rural Community Action Network welcomes the changes to the Licensing Act 2003 announced by the Department for Culture Media and Sport that will take effect from 03/08/09.The Legislative Reform (Supervision of Alcohol Sales in Church and Village Halls) Order 2009 will allow volunteer committees managing community buildings to take joint responsibility for the sale of alcohol in their buildings instead of being required to appoint an individual as the Designated Premises Supervisor (DPS). Small communities whether rural or urban have found it very difficult to recruit and fund a volunteer DPS who was willing to take on the responsibility and the required training.
Management committees will need to ensure that the sale of alcohol is included in their Premises Licence and be able to demonstrate clearly to their local licensing authority how they operate and that there will be appropriate supervision of alcohol sales at different types of events.
“Village halls and other community buildings provide an extremely important resource for communities, accommodating a wide range of educational, welfare and sports and leisure activities”, says ACRE’s Village Hall Information Officer, Deborah Clarke. “These much needed changes have taken years of lobbying by the Rural Community Action Network. We are therefore very pleased that the Department for Culture Media and Sport have listened to our concerns and taken action to de-regulate particularly in the current climate when committees are struggling to cope with reductions in funding, and legislative requirements”.