Letter as published in the Dorset Echo 25 February 2004.

'Performers': the council decides

There is no need for Roger gall (letters, February 18) to refer to Hansard for the answer to the question of who should determine what "performer" means in the context of public entertainment licensing. The stance of Weymouth and Portland Borough Council's officers is simply contradictory.

If the definition is "set in law" then it can be quoted from the relevant statute or case, and there is no need for the courts to be involved. If, on the other hand, the courts must decide, it is because there is no set definition. The courts will only need to get involved where an authority has come up with a definition and it has been challenged.

As the advising officers have apparently confirmed that there is no quotable definition, then we must be in the second situation. The council is therefore free to define "performer" however it wishes, albeit subject to a possible legal challenge.

As the council is presumably unlikely to challenge itself, however, then so long as the definition adopted is acceptable to local licensees there does not appear to be a risk of the council ending up in any legal bother.

Andrew Jackson
Cowes
Isle of Wight