Pavement Licences were introduced as a fast-track procedure to speed up the processing of licences after the Covid pandemic. It’s at businesses that use their premises to sell food or drink such as pubs, cafes, bars, restaurants, snack bars, coffee shops, and ice cream parlours. It also applies to businesses where such use is secondary to another purpose. For example, supermarkets, or entertainment venues that sell food and drink.
Businesses that do not use their premises for the sale of food or drink, such as salons, are ineligible. However, in Hackney, they can apply for permission to place furniture on the pavement with a Shop Front Licence. This is under the London Local Authorities Act 1990. See Shop front trading licence.
You can use pavement licences for up to 3 months. Then, you must renew them with the local authority to keep using the space the licence allows.
Changing a shop front licence to a pavement licence
If you want to change your shop front licence to a pavement licence, you will need to apply for a variation to your licence.
Pavement licence requirements
Pavement licences are for businesses that are looking to use the public highway to place street furniture (either fully or in part) for the sale or consumption of food and/or drink on or off the premises.
You must remove all street furniture placed on the public highway by 10pm each trading day as specified in your licence.
The granting of a pavement licence doesn’t grant planning permission for leaving items on the public highway outside of the authorised hours. Failure to remove them may place your licence at risk of revocation and street furniture seized.
If completing the application form on a computer, use Adobe Acrobat so that you can save your work after you have completed the text fields.
Supporting documents
You must submit your application with the following supporting documents:
the pavement licence application form fully completed, signed, and dated
a full face photograph (taken within the last 12 months, selfies accepted)
a copy of one of the documents below as proof of identity:
copy of your passport
current full UK/EU photocard driving licence
a copy of one of the documents below as proof of home address:
recent utility bill dated within the last 3 months (eg gas, phone, water, electricity, council tax). We do not accept mobile phone bills
bank statement (dated within the last 3 months)
bank or credit card statement (dated within the last 3 months)
a copy of one of the documents below as proof of National Insurance number:
a copy of your National Insurance card
Inland Revenue document
tax statement
Benefits Agency document
payslip
P45 or P60
proof of public liability coverage (minimum coverage of £5 million)
a copy of one of the below as proof of premises address:
recent utility bill dated within the last 3 months (for example gas, phone, water, electricity, Council Tax). We do not accept mobile phone bills
bank or credit card statement (dated within the last 3 months)
photos of furniture to be placed outside the business premises
photographic evidence of the site notice being completed and clearly displayed in the shop front window or door, and on shutters if these are used when your premises is closed
Supporting documents for food businesses only
a valid food hygiene certificate (level 2 or above) in the name of the licensee (if trading in cooked food)
proof of registration of the business with Hackney Environmental Health
If you are a public limited company or chain wishing to apply for a pavement licence, then a member of the management team of each premises will need to apply for the licence on behalf of the PLC or chain.
We can only issue pavement licences to an individual, not a business name.
This does not discount PLCs or chains applying for a pavement licence.
We will not refund any fees paid in relation to shop front trading in the event you wish to switch to a pavement licence.
Fees and charges
To have your application considered, you must pay a non-refundable application fee.
All renewals of a pavement licence after three months also require a renewal fee.
Once you’ve submitted your application, a 14 day public consultation period will start. The public will be able to make representations regarding your application.
We’ll contact you if anything’s missing from the application. If anything is missing, the consultation period will not start.
Refer to the supporting documents section before you send your application.
Following this, we will have a further 14 days to review all representations and decide on your application.
Affix a site notice to your premises
Once you have submitted your application, you must affix a site notice to your premises. It must remain there for the duration of the consultation.
It must be clearly visible 24 hours, 7 days a week in your shop front window or door until the end of the consultation period. You must also affix a notice on your shutters if you use them when the premises is closed:
state that the application has been made and the date on which it was made
indicate that representations may be made to us during the consultation period and when the consultation comes to an end
contain such other information as we may require
Acceptance or refusal of an application
Following the consultation period, we will inform you of the outcome of your application within 7 days.
All decisions will take into account any representations received and we reserve the right to add specific conditions to licences where we feel appropriate to do so.