Licensing - Complaints and Compliments

Information on how to feedback compliments or complaints about a licence holder in the East Lindsey District. This webpage does not relate to complaints about a taxi / private hire driver, vehicle or company - there is a separate webpage for this entitled: Hire Vehicles - Complaints & Compliments.

How to Make a Complaint

If you have a complaint about a licence holder, try and talk to the licence holder or company. If you've done that and the issue hasn't been sorted out, you can complain to us.

You can make a complaint by completing the form on this webpage and then emailing the completed form to:

licensing@e-lindsey.gov.uk

All relevant sections of the complaint form must be completed.

We will need your details, including your name and email address. Your information will be kept confidential. Please be advised that the Licensing Service is not normally able to investigate anonymous complaints.

If you have any queries regarding the completion of the complaint form, or if you have any questions regarding this webpage, please contact the Licensing Team at the above email address.

The Council's Licensing Service deals with a wide range of licensing issues including alcohol, late night refreshment, gambling, taxi, private hire vehicle, pet shop, dog breeding, riding establishment and lottery licensing. With this in mind we do receive a considerable number of enquiries, observations and complaints about licence holders. Please bear this in mind when you are awaiting acknowledgement of your complaint.

Information You Need to Supply

Where possible you should include:

·       A description of the incident/complaint

·       Other persons present

·       The licence holder / business name

·       Your contact details

For those complaints which may end up in Court or Licensing Committee hearing, we will require witness statements from all those present during the incident. If you do not wish to complete a witness statement, the complaint cannot go to Court and will be dealt with in a less formal manner.

What Happens Next

A Council Officer will acknowledge receipt of the complaint within 10 working days, however, the nature of the complaint may not warrant the contents being discussed with the complainant.

We will contact the business concerned and they will be allowed to respond to the complaint. Your contact details are never divulged to a licence holder/business without your permission. We will consider all the evidence to determine what/if further action should be taken.

Where appropriate - once a decision has been reached, you will be informed.

The Outcome

With all complaints, there must be sufficient evidence in order to take further action. Often this may mean there are witnesses, or some other form of evidence such as CCTV, video or audio evidence.

Where we have sufficient evidence to prove the complaint the Council can either; prosecute the licence holder if it is a criminal offence, take action against the licence or warn the licence holder as to their future conduct.

The action depends on a number of factors; for example, some matters of complaint are not criminal offences and therefore cannot result in prosecution. Where there is insufficient evidence, it is unlikely we will be able to take further action. We may record the details on the licence holder's file and consider the matter if we receive further complaints of a similar nature.

In some cases, we may ask the Council's Licensing Committee (consisting of Councillors) to look at the complaint. The Committee can decide to suspend or take the licence away or issue a warning regarding future conduct.

Licence Holder Compliments

Compliments about licence holders are always gratefully received. Compliments can be emailed to:

licensing@e-lindsey.gov.uk