Intoxicating Liquor Act, 1953

Licensing of new premises.

7.—(1) Where the holder of a certificate under section 6, having duly given notice of his intention, applies to the Court for a certificate entitling him to receive a licence in respect of premises on the approved site the Court shall, notwithstanding anything contained in the Act of 1902, cause such certificate to be given to him unless the Court, in its absolute discretion, prohibits the issuing of the licence—

(a) on the ground of the character, misconduct or unfitness of the applicant or the unfitness or inconvenience of the premises, or

(b) subject to subsection (2), on the ground that the existence of a licence for the premises would be unreasonably detrimental to the business then carried on in some licensed premises in the neighbourhood.

(2) The ground of objection mentioned in paragraph (b) of subsection (1) shall not be considered if—

(a) the premises are erected on the site of the previously licensed premises, or

(b) the local authority certify that that site is not available as a site for licensed premises and it appears to the Court that the location of the premises where they are rather than on the former site is unlikely of itself to have a materially adverse effect on the business carried on in the neighbouring premises.

(3) (a) The licence granted in pursuance of this section shall be of the same character and be subject to the same conditions as the licence attached to the former premises.

(b) Nothing in the Act of 1902 shall prevent the grant of the new licence.

(c) Upon the grant of the new licence the former licence (if it has not already lapsed) shall be extinguished.

(d) Any conviction recorded on the former licence under section 25 of the Act of 1927 at the time of the grant of the new licence shall, if the licensee was the holder of the former licence, be deemed to be recorded on the new licence under that section and to have been so recorded on the date when it was recorded on the former licence.

(e) If the former premises were premises to which paragraph (1) of section 2 of the Act of 1902 applied, that paragraph shall, upon the grant of the new licence, cease to apply to them and shall be deemed to apply to the new premises.

(f) If the former premises were premises to which section 6 of the Act of 1902 applied, the new premises shall be deemed to be premises to which the section applies.