Licence hurdles hinder Sunday al frescos for Quay businesses

Mora general manager Andre Moreira said the restaurant has not provided al fresco dining for the last couple of weeks since the States decided to close traffic at the Quay on weekends because the establishment could not get permission to extend their liquor licence.

‘I have tried all week to have an extension of our liquor licence without any success,’ he said.

‘I could offer the al fresco option but I couldn’t sell any alcohol.

‘At Mora restaurant we tried everything and, as you know, we need now as much business as we can to recover from the lockdown.’

Mr Moreira said he was very excited when he heard the States was going to close the Quay every weekend and applied for the licence for that weekend, but the situation was out of his hands.

‘I wanted to do it straight away, so I went to the store to get all the al fresco gear and put it outside ready to go, but then heard the courts did not allow us to have an extension of the liquor licence.’

That same day he emailed Home Affairs with an application form, but had no luck there either.

‘If we have the permission, we will do it every weekend and we will be very happy to do so.

‘It’s very sad to see the Quay closed and empty.’

PingQuay financial director Miles Bishop-White said that although the bar did have a licence to open on Sunday, by the time the States had confirmed that the licence was in fact valid, it was too late to get prepared.

‘We were open on Sunday but a number of customers asked why did we not have outside seating,’ he said.

‘We had tried since Monday to establish if our Seafront Sunday licensing extension would cover the business.’

Sunday 7 June was originally scheduled to be a Seafront Sunday, for which the bar had an approved licence extension for which the business paid for.

‘No one ever confirmed either way so we chose not to put tables outside in case we were breaking the licensing laws,’ Mr Bishop-White said.

‘It now turns out that it would have been OK.’

The business paid £62 to the courts and £84 to the parish constables for each of the eight Seafront Sunday sessions.

For this coming Sunday – which is not a Seafront Sunday date – the bar has been approached to apply for a licence, which it has done, although they will be charged again.

Co-director Simon Allum was enthusiastic about using the seafront more to create a European holiday destination feel.

‘We are so lucky to have restaurants and bars overlooking Castle Cornet and the marina and because we’re not really able to travel off-island for holidays this year Guernsey could do something really special to help the hospitality industry recover from the pandemic and please islanders too.’

Balthazar owner Steve Le Poidevin was supportive and excited about the States’ initiative to use the seafront to support the community and businesses.

‘It’s an exciting time to see how this will develop over the summer,’ he said.

‘There will always be a couple of teething problems [but] we all learn together when we try new things.’

n Environment & Infrastructure have not responded to the Guernsey Press’ enquiries about obstacles preventing establishments fully throwing themselves into the States-driven al fresco initiative.

Home Affairs has been contacted for comment about issues with extending licences.