Getting Permission to put Furniture on the Street

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.

You need a licence:

• to put tables, chairs and other removable furniture on the street
• if you’re are a food business and it’s seating for your customers

You should apply to:

• us if you’re a food business, including cafes and restaurants
• Kent County Council if you’re another type of business or organisation

A pavement licence from us can last up until the 30 September, 2024. You can surrender it at any time.

Applying to us

You should apply to us if you're a food business.

Alcohol

If you’re applying to us and you already have a premises licence that allows you to sell alcohol, your customers can drink alcohol in the seating area that will be covered by your pavement licence.

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

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.

The furniture that is covered by your licence must be removed by 11pm.