Council / Mareel granted late licences for Rising North events
Lerwick restaurant C’est La Vie has also been granted more occasional alcohol licences
MAREEL has been granted late licenses to hold Rising North music festival events through to 3am.
The application, for extended hours from 1am to 3am on Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 August, was approved by Shetland’s licensing board on Monday.
This is separate to Rising North’s already-announced two nights at the Clickimin on the Friday and Saturday.
The application was given a warm welcome from councillors, with chairman Neil Pearson saying: “I think that last year’s festival was a huge success – this year’s festival is looking to be even bigger.”
Lerwick North and Bressay member Stephen Leask said he hoped Rising North would be an ongoing event in future years, and added: “‘It’s really something special for a lot of people.”
Meanwhile a number of occasional licences were also granted for Lerwick’s French-themed restaurant C’est La Vie.
It is not the first time a series of occasional alcohol licences have been granted for the premises, with applications previously going up in front of the board in January.
Restaurant granted more alcohol licences but concern raised over lack of permanent one
At that meeting owner Didier Piquer repeated his intention to apply for a permanent licence.
But he said in comments lodged with the latest application: “We will apply for a permanent licence but not before June as we have to deal with unexpected issues.”
The board heard that this may be related to building issues.
The new application was for nine occasional licences from 14 April through to 17 August.
Shetland Central councillor Moraig Lyall questioned at what point does a series of repeated occasional licences “become a de facto permanent one”.
SIC lawyer Paul Wishart said each application has to be considered on its own merit and added that there is no restriction on the number of days in the year for occasional licences, although voluntary organisations do have a limit.
He said members had to focus on whether there were any grounds for refusal – and as such, Shetland Central councillor Catherine Hughson said the board had little other option than to grant the application.
Wishart had also told members that in the past some premises have used repeated occasional licences, but they ended up getting a permanent one.
This included barges used as accommodation during the construction of the Shetland Gas Plant.
Wishart added though that repeated occasional licences is generally “discouraged”.
Councillor Lyall also said she hoped the owners of C’est La Vie got ahead with their building work as soon as possible to allow them to apply for a permanent licence.
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