Current legislation does not force councils to do this, as they claim.

This is made clear in the following quote from The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Bassam of Brighton), replying on behalf of HM Government to a question from The Lord Bishop of Oxford, in The House of Lords Entertainment Legislation Debate Monday 11 December 2000.

"Whether members of the public who sing on licensed premises count as performers is a matter for the licensing authority to decide, depending on the circumstances" .

If we all now can focus and put pressure on one such authority (WPBC, a tourist resort) where officers have taken the action based on members of the public as performers and compromised the members into endorsing it, we can start a precendent that will prevent all the other councils from repeating it.

Please write and ask them to defend this policy or change it. Many people have and it is making quite a difference already.