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Thursday , April , 18 2024
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Advice on Staging a Temporary Event.


If you are staging a small event where less than 500 people are likely to attend, you may need to apply for a Temporary Event Notice.

This notice will be essential if your event is providing licensable activities i.e. regulated entertainment, sale of alcohol, or hot food or drink for sale (between 23:00 and 05:00 often referred to as ‘late night refreshment’). Please refer to our Guidance notes (GD03) that explains ‘regulated entertainment’

Someone who holds a personal licence will be able to hold up to 50 temporary events a year at premises that are not licensed. Non-personal licence holders will be able to hold up to 5 temporary events a year. A Temporary Event Notice must be given to the council at least 10 clear working days before an event of this sort can be held, and the police and Environmental Health may object to it under the four licensing objectives.

The legislation now allows a limited number of 'late' notices to be served giving between 5 and 9 clear days notice. A personal licence holder may serve up to 10 late notices and a non-personal licence holder up to 2.

The legislation does not allow any discretion to accept the notice with less than 5 clear working days notice.

Individual premises may only hold 15 temporary events per year and the total number of days must be no more than 21.

 External Links

  Temporary Events FAQ

Can I appeal?

An appeal process is available to the premises user, the Police and Environmental Health, if they are not satisfied with the decision of the licensing sub-committee.

Any appeal must be lodged at the local Magistrates' Court within 21 days of the date the hearing decision was made. However, no appeal may be brought later than five working days before the first day of the event.

If you have a complaint about the way your temporary event notice was processed, please contact the Licensing Service in the first instance. 

NB. Section 193 of the Act defines "working day" as any day other than a Saturday, a Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday, or a day which is a bank holiday under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971 in England and Wales.

Please ensure that you attach enough postage to the envelope. Some letters are held by the post office for unpaid deficient postage and may be delivered too late for the TEN to be valid. An A4 envelope is classed as a Large Letter and should carry the appropriate postage.

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