Changing use from a restaurant to a bar

Case study

Bizarre Drinks has bought a property with the benefit of planning permission for use as a restaurant. The property is to be one of a chain and the company intends to use it primarily as a bar, serving alcoholic beverages and soft drinks with a small amount of food sales, such as bar snacks.

The planning permission, although still valid, is shortly to expire and the premises have in fact never been used as a restaurant.

Bizarre Drinks director Ged Young is aware that certain changes could be made without planning permission and thinks that the property can be used as a bar without having to apply for permission from the local planning authority. On enquiry to the authority, however, he is told that the restaurant planning permission had been granted some time ago and that since then planning polices have changed.

In fact, Young is told that planning policies no longer support the use of the premises either as a bar or as a restaurant, and if he does apply for planning permission to change the use of the premises to a bar he is unlikely to get it.

He is also informed that he can no longer use the premises as a bar without planning permission, and if he does then the council will consider serving a notice to prevent such use.

This case study is a work of fiction and consequently the names, characters and incidents portrayed in the article are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

What the expert advises

Gary Soloman is an associate in the planning unit of Burges Salmon Solicitors

In view of the fact that the restaurant planning permission is shortly to expire, the most important thing for Bizarre Drinks to ensure is that the restaurant use has begun before the planning permission expires.

As planning policies do not support restaurant/bar use, it is clear that if the permission lapses then it will be extremely difficult to secure a new permission for the premises, as either a restaurant or a bar.

The ideal position is to start bar use without the need to implement use as a restaurant. But in view of the legal position, using the premises as a restaurant first is the only way of securing lawful use as a bar without an express grant of planning permission from the local planning authority.

On a practical note, it would first be advisable to approach the planning authority to persuade it that, if a change from a restaurant to a bar can occur without planning permission, a move straight to use as a bar should also be acceptable. Should this be confirmed then this may, of course, avoid the need to expend time and money on fitting out the premises as a restaurant when this is not really the desired use.