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Getting Permission to put Furniture on the Street

Chapters in this topic

  1. Introduction
  2. Applying to us
  3. Renew a pavement licence

Introduction

If you're a business, you’ll need a licence to put tables, chairs and other removable furniture on the street. This permission is known as a pavement licence.

Insurance

You'll need to include suitable public liability insurance with at least £5 million cover for any one incident, in your application for a pavement licence.

Conditions of your licence

You'll need to follow the conditions of a pavement licence (PDF 97KB). For more information, you can download the guidance notes (PDF 75KB).

The conditions of your pavement licence should be followed along with any in conditions in your premises licence if you have one.

Placing your tables and chairs

If your application is successful, you can put removable furniture over certain highways adjacent to your premises as long as you:

  • provide a non-smoking area
  • follow any conditions included in your licence
  • don’t put them on a road where there’s vehicle traffic
  • don’t put them where they’ll cause an inconvenience to pedestrians, prevent access to other premises or prevent an engineer from carrying out work on public utilities

Under certain circumstances, you may be asked to move or remove your furniture, including if we think it's a health and safety risk or it's causing an obstruction. You must move or remove your furniture if you're told to by one of our officers, Kent County Council or the police.

Removing your furniture

The furniture that is covered by your licence must be removed by 11pm or the time stated on your pavement licence, whichever is earliest.

Alcohol

If you already have a premises licence that allows you to sell alcohol for consumption off the premises, your customers can drink alcohol in the seating area that will be covered by your pavement licence.

If you want to serve alcohol to your customers but your premises licence doesn't cover the sale of alcohol for consumption off the premises, you'll need to update your premises licence.

You can only sell alcohol between the hours that are show on your premises licence.

Related pages

Next Applying to us