There's over zealous council officers and there's helpful council officers, and the same goes for councillors. There are folk musicians and publicans among them. Never w3triote people off in advance.

The law is a mess, but changing it would be likely to make it even more of a mess. The normal way that gets sorted out in England is people agree to ignore the law. But sensible public policy statements at a local levelon how the council interprets the law would be helpful in practice.

Maybe this is one issue where London folkies could get on to Ken Livingstone. It's the kind of issue he might like to pick up and run with. (Except that'd probably get Tony Blair vengefully down on us, so maybe it's not such a good idea...)