Club Premises Certificates

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Applying for a Club Premises Certificate

The following is intended as a guide to making an application for a club premises certificate. Hyndburn Borough Council cannot take responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions. You may wish to seek your own independent legal advice before making any licensing application to the Licensing Authority.

You can apply for a club premises certificate if you’re a qualifying members club and you want to provide licensable activities to your club members and their guests.

The relevant licensable activities are:

  • the supply of alcohol to club members and their guests
  • the provision of regulated entertainment to club members and their guests.  This includes:
    • theatrical performances
    • showing of films
    • indoor sporting events
    • boxing or wrestling (indoor or outdoor)
    • live music
    • recorded music
    • dance

To qualify for a certificate, your club must make sure that:

  • it has premises that are occupied and used regularly for club purposes
  • alcohol and entertainment is only provided to members and their guests
  • only someone 18 or older who is nominated by the club can serve alcohol or buy it for the club
  • there is no arrangement for anyone to benefit financially from buying or selling alcohol
  • new members wait two days from their application before getting membership privileges
  • it is established and conducted in good faith
  • it has at least 25 members

The benefits of holding a club premises certificate are that:

  • nobody needs to hold a personal licence to sell or supply alcohol
  • you don’t need to name a designated premises supervisor
  • police and licensing officers have more limited rights of entry because the premises are private

To apply for a new Club Premises Certificate, you must:

  • Complete the prescribed application form which includes an operating schedule.  To see more about how we record and store your information please see the Council’s privacy notice.
  • enclose a Club Declaration Form
  • enclose the prescribed fee by either cash, cheque or Postal Order made payable to Hyndburn Borough Council.  We can also take credit/debit card payments over the telephone
  • enclose a plan of the premises to which the application relates
  • enclose a copy of your club rules

Once your application is complete, it must be submitted to the Licensing Authority by either post or email.

Before completing your operating schedule you are strongly advised to read our Statement of Licensing Policy, which gives guidance on our policies and expectations

A copy of the completed application and accompanying documents must be served on all of the Responsible Authorities on the same day as the application is submitted to the Licensing Authority. If you do not send full copies to the Responsible Authorities, any one of them can declare your application to be invalid.  If you are applying by email, the Licensing Authority will forward the application on.

As part of the application process, you are required to publicise your application in two different ways:

  • by publishing a public notice in a local newspaper, on one occasion within 10 working days of submitting your application to the Licensing Authority.  Local newspapers to Hyndburn are  Accrington Observer  and Lancashire Evening Telegraph.
  • by displaying a statutory notice (on blue paper, A4 or larger) at or near the premises, for 28 days.

Advertising your application gives Responsible Authorities, local residents and any other interested parties the opportunity to make representations in respect of your application during the 28 day notice period. If the representation is valid it may result in a Licensing Sub-Committee under Hearing Regulations.  In some cases, the Licensing Authority will invite parties involved to a mediation meeting.

If there are no representations, the application will be granted in the terms sought.

Once a Club Premises Certificate is granted, it will last until such time as it is surrendered or revoked. An annual administration fee is payable in respect of all Club Premises Certificates. This fee falls due on the first anniversary of the grant of the licence and every year thereafter.

Please see the guidance leaflet giving detailed information on the process of applying for a new Club Premises Certificate.