Members of Glasgow City Licensing Board yesterday moved to challenge the decision by Sheriff Craig Scott last week to uphold an appeal by BP against Scottish Government legislation that would restrict the sale of alcohol in its forecourts, throwing Scotland’s flagship alcohol legislation into disarray just a month before it is due to be introduced.
The retaliatory appeal by Glasgow City Council now looks set to prolong the judicial wranglings over the controversial Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005, which is a central pillar in the government’s attempts to stem binge drinking and promote more responsible retailing of alcohol.
From September, only garage forecourts proving they were the main source of groceries and fuel in a particular area would be able to continue selling alcohol, protecting many rural filling stations.
However, after an appeal by BP, Sheriff Scott ruled that this particular aspect of the legislation rested on a “nebulous” concept of community.
Rather than proving that the garage serves the need of a wider community, as stated in guidance issued by the Scottish Government, Sheriff Scott has said that the legislation makes mention only of “persons resident in the locality”, meaning that if the shop is used by more than one person to purchase groceries it has fulfilled the requirements.
Although the council’s appeal relates only to two petrol stations within its jurisdiction – the BP/Marks & Spencer Simply Food Outlets on Great Western Road and Paisley Road West – it is an important test case for the viability of the legislation throughout the rest of the country.
Fears have already been expressed that if this part of the act fails to stand up in an urban area such as Glasgow, it will open the floodgates for a slew of other licensing battles which could leave scarcely a forecourt in Scotland without alcohol on sale.
One legal source said there was currently “no clarity”, adding: “We’re fully expecting quite a few court cases based on interpretations of vague licensing objectives.
“As for BP, if Glasgow overturns its previous ruling, the rest will follow, leaving this part of the act meaningless.”
A spokesman for the council said yesterday that it would be “inappropriate to comment while legal proceedings were ongoing”. BP was unavailable for comment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article