Thanks to CraigS for continental info. Very useful.

PELs will effectively disappear in licensed premises if the licensing White Paper is fully implemented as written.

No additional licence should be necessary for acoustic, or even 'semi-acoustic' sessions in pubs, bars etc. This is the view of enlightened civil servants and politicians. Provided pressure is maintained by musicians (the petition is a great idea), writing to MPs, Home Office etc, and engaging local press and TV where sessions are under threat, I think there is a very good chance that the new law will end the present restrictions completely.

One stumbling block, however, is the Local Government Association's opposition to low licences fees, set centrally. This key proposal in the licensing White Paper would effectively reverse the trend of 25 years. High PEL fees, which are common in the bigger cities, are a disincentive to the provision of live music.

Local authorities complain that without the fees, they won't have the resources to fulfil the statutory duties to inspect premises. My argument is that central Government has to make up the shortfall - a consequence of their duty to 'create the social and economic conditions in which rights to participate in the cultural life of the community' can flourish.

The total PEL income for England and Wales is about 11 million UK pounds. This is a small sum in terms of local authority budgets. The benefit to the community of freeing up access to local music more than justifies the principle of centralised funding. It worked up till 1974 - at which point the legislation was amended to allow 'cost recovery' fees. Until then I think PEL fees had been only a few quid a year.

Back to the petition idea: I am presenting case studies to the Arts Council and Home Office on 21 Feb. I realise that's not enough time to get a petition together, but if you want me to forward a particular message (expletives deleted!)please let me know.