A couple of months back I sent our Harlow MP Bill Rammell a letter about this, and he sent it upstairs, with a note back to me indicating that he's fed up with the current legal situation himself (well, he used to have to deal personally with negotiating Public Entertainment Licences as part of his job with a university before he became an MP). I think I posted the text of my letter and Bill's reply on the Cat at the time.

Anyway, I've just today had a copy of the letter that he has got back from Dr Kim Howells in the Department of Agriculture and Sport, Minister for Tourism, Film and Broadcasting (a funny combination of responsibilities isn't it?). No surprises in it, but it's got a couple of useful points:

Dear Bill, Thank you for your letter of 19 September to Alan Whitbread enclosing one from Mr Kevin McGrath of (address), which has been passed to me as I am now responsible for policy in respect of public entertainment licensing.

We are equally keen to reform and modernise this country's existing outdated licensing laws. The White Paper "Time for Reform£, published in April 2000 heavily criticised the public entertainment licensing arrangements and the inconsistency in the interpretation and practice adopted by different local authorities.

As Mr McGrath suggests, a key problem is the over-zealous enforcement by a handful of local authorities.

The White Paper proposed a single integrated premises licence covering sales of alcohol, the provision of public entertainment and late-night refreshment or any combination of these activities. Once granted this licence will be valid for the lifetime of the business involved.

This would amount to a massive reduction in bureaucracy. In terms of licensing, many premises would incur no additional cost by obtaining coverage under the licence for all public entertainments as well as the sale of alcohol. Under the present system it is a considerable additional annual cost for any pub of club to decide to obtain a public entertainment licence. The White Paper proposals should therefore create a new incentive for premises to stage professional musical performances or indeed the kind of amateur singalongs to which Mr McGrath also refers.

In May this year the Government publicly announced its intention to introduce primary legislation to implement the White Paper proposals as soon as Parliamentary permits.

Yours, Kim

And from that I find it useful that Kim Howells specifically says - referring directly to my letter in which I gave the example of what has happened in Weymouth, and also in Waltham Abbey - "a key problem is over-zealous enforcement by a handful of local authorities."

And I also see it as useful that Kim Howells has also taken note of the existence of sessions as opposed to gigs, for the first time so far as I am aware in this context - "amateur singalongs" is a pretty dire label, but you can't have everything. Anyway he's Welsh, so perhaps the term is a bit more respectful than it would be if it had come from an English politician.

What he has failed to do of course is to take account of the problem that the present restrictions do not just impact on pubs and so forth, but that if anyone makes music in any place to which the public has access, a licence is required. If this had been the case back in the 50s, the coffee-bar skiffle craze that was the precursor of both the folk club movement ,and of the British rock explosion would have been stifled at birth.

Anyway I'll make this point in my reply to Bill Rammell and to Kim Howells.

Bill Rammell's letter back to me today for the most part just repeats what Kim Howells said verbatim. But he adds a handwritten PS saying "I am convinced that this change needs to happen. I am strongly pressing for it."

So even if Shambles must feel he is beating his brains out on the obdurate and apparently obtuse bureaucrats in Weymouth, there are some reasons to be hopeful. And on the basis of this letter it seems clear that "over-zealous enforcement by a handful of local authorities" is not favourably regarded in high places, and that, on this matter, the burghers of Weymouth are out on a limb that is likely to be lopped off before too long.