Temporary tables and chairs licence
You need a pavement licence to have removable furniture, such as tables and chairs, outside your business on a public highway. This includes counters or stalls selling or serving food and drink, tables, counters or shelves on which food or drink can be placed, chairs benches or other forms of seating, umbrellas, barriers, heaters and other items used in connection with the outdoor consumption of food and drink.
The food or drink must be supplied from, or in connection with, the relevant use of the premises.
Temporary changes to planning and licensing procedures were implemented in July 2020 through The Business and Planning Act 2020, which were designed to support businesses selling food and drink while social distancing guidelines remained in place. This scheme is only valid until 30 September 2024.
A new permanent scheme will be available after this we will update the website on details of this, once these are confirmed.
Cost
The fee is £100, payable on application. This is non-refundable.
Who can apply
You are eligible to apply if:
- your business uses the premises for the sale of food or drink for consumption ie a cafe, restaurant, pub, ice cream parlour
- you are applying for a licence on an authorised street
- 2 metres of clear footpath can be maintained on the street outside your business (1.5m in exceptional circumstances), allowing for any obstacles. Please note that in areas of high footfall, a wider clearway may be required. In any case, we cannot issue a licence for more than half the depth of the available space.
You cannot get a licence for:
- land owned by Network Rail or the Crown
You do not need a licence to place tables and chairs on your own privately maintained forecourt. Please check who owns and maintains the land you intend to use before you proceed.
If you do not own your own forecourt and do not fall into these categories, you will need to apply for a standard pavement trading licence.
Space for access
A minimum of 2m clearance must be maintained between the furniture and the kerb or any street furniture. In areas of busy footfall, this would increase to 3m or 3.5m. In all cases, we cannot issue a licence for more than half of the available pavement. Your furniture must not obstruct any access into adjoining properties or take up space in front of adjoining properties.
All goods and furniture must be removed from the pavement when the premises is not trading.
How to apply
You can apply for a licence online.
Please read the guidance notes (PDF 67KB) before applying.
You will be asked to provide:
- Your business details
- Details of the furniture you will place outside
- A plan of the site – this can be drawn by hand or machine and does not need to be to scale but must include the area to be used, access to the building, any obstructions on the pavement and clearly stated measurements - a photo of the site is not acceptable
- A copy of your current Public Liability Insurance Certificate
It will assist you if you can get these together before you start. If having difficulty with uploading documents, you can send these separately but it may delay your application as we cannot start the process until all documents and payment are received.
Make your payment over the phone by calling 020 8708 3774 Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm.
What happens next
Consultation period
Once a complete application has been received, there is a 5 working day consultation period, beginning the next working day. We will send the details of the application to relevant authorities and publish it on our website where it will be available for public consideration to allow for representations to be made.
You must display a public notice for the same period at your premises.
Download the public notice (631Kb)
Determination period
Following the consultation period, there is a further 5 working day determination period for consideration of the application, any representations, recommendations or adjustments. A site meeting may be requested.
We will let you know the decision by tenth working day.
See a list of current applications
Licence issued
The licence can be granted, granted with additional conditions or will be refused for reasons that will be clearly explained. If we do not make a formal decision about the application by the end of the tenth working day, the licence is deemed to have been granted.
Read our standard conditions (PDF 540KB) for this licence type.
The licence must be displayed on the premises, visible from exterior during trading hours, to confirm the space to be used.
For any further queries, please email our licensing team at licensing.authority@redbridge.gov.uk
Isn't the scheme changing?
Yes, the scheme is changing and a new longer licence will be available from September onwards. We will write to all licence holders during August to remind you to apply for the new scheme, once the full terms are confirmed and will update this page with the new information.
In the meantime, we can still issue under the current scheme until 30th June 2024, for licences valid until 30th September 2024.
