But we have managed to get around that - thanks to the local authority acting sensibly. Cooperation. Often works as well as confrontation.
At the eleventh hour - he has now presented the 'problem' to your local licensing authority
No he hasn't and your suggestion that he did shows a fundamental misunderstanding which I have tried to correct before. Humphrey can do what he likes with his pubs. We might not like it, we may not even understand it and we have certainly tried very hard to get him to change his mind. I am amongst those who wrote to him and received no reply. But in his wisdom he has chosen to allow the carols to go ahead at this one.
How that event then goes ahead is up to the licensing authority and they have chosen to allow it. It is their decision. They may have acted ultra vires but your assesment of the situation is based on what you have read on a website and what I have told you. It is what historians call secondary evidence. What on crime programmes they call hearsay.
Can I make a suggestion? You clearly feel this issue is important. Come to Sheffield, come to the carols at this particular place. Make sure you have all the facts at your fingertips. Talk it over with the local people and with the landlord personally.
and because of the publicity already generated - many eyes are carefully studying their actions.
Who? Who is carefully studying their actions? I hope you have not gone around drawing this to people's attention. You were specifically asked to take no action and to avoid publicity at all costs to protect the landlord's livelihood and a community event. Here is what you said at the time......
Subject: RE: Sheffield Carols From: The Shambles - PM Date: 03 Dec 05 - 02:21 AM
I am sorry and I respect the licensee's wishes in this matter but I do think that it perhaps a little late for such calls. If Yorkshire Folk Arts chooses to speculate and advertise well in advance on its website that a venue has problems you rather have to live with the inevitable public concern this causes and the other consequences of this action.
Emphasis is mine....
I cannot speak on behalf of Yorkshire Folk Arts. I am reasonably certain that the local community who go to that pub to sing carols are happy to live with it. It is you who seem unhappy to live with the consequences. You are the one who wants to bring the attention of the local authority to the consequences. The public concern (as far as I am aware) seems to consist of you. You do not speak on my behalf and most certainly you do not speak on behalf of a community 280+ miles away from where you live. Come and speak to them, express your concern, listen to what they say, and then go ahead if you feel you must.
The way I see things the local authority are damned if they allow it and damned if they prevent it.
That may be the way you see it but I don't. The local authority are to be congratulated on allowing it to go ahead by all the people who enjoy the carols, from Canada (see posts above) across to the UK, and up to the level of the local pub. You are the only person I know who is damning it for going ahead.
But they do seem rather more keen on not being seen as the ones who prevent it.
Excellent decision on their part. Why should they risk the wrath of the local community when by a simple "manoeuvre" they can avoid it? Would that other local authorities follow their excellent example and that this one continues to make sensible decisions. Frankly I feel it is unlikely, and I am amazed they have done it, but I certainly am not going to stop them.
And I don't want someone doing it from long distance either. That is a selfish attitude. I agree. But indulging yourself in legal issues like thhis is similarly selfish when you are doing it from distance.
The people who are allowed to object to decisions of the licensing authority are:
* A person living in the vicinity of the premises * A body representing persons who live in that vicinity * A person involved in a business in the vicinity of the premises * A body representing persons involved in these businesses
Would you be kind enough to let me and the rest of this board which of those categories you fall into? I suspect it will be the first question the local authority will ask, so you may as well have your answer ready.
I also agree with those who think we have gone far enough on this with this board.