29/08/2026
🚨 WEYMOUTH TOWN CENTRE — WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT 🚨
We don't normally bring licensing matters onto Facebook, however the echo made it public so here we are….
After trying to get answers directly from Dorset Council, we feel it's important that local businesses, residents and visitors understand what is currently happening with our outside seating at The Black Dog on St Mary Street.
This matters to us — but we also believe it raises much wider questions about the future of outside seating and hospitality in St Mary Street and Weymouth town centre.
WHAT WE ACTUALLY APPLIED FOR
This was not an application for a new outside seating licence.
RENEWAL application was due for our existing pavement licence, which already permits our outside seating until 10pm.
As part of that renewal, we requested an extension of the finishing time by two hours, from 10pm until midnight.
Our main reason for requesting that extension was SAFETY.
Instead, Highways have objected to our outside seating remaining after 5.30pm, and we have subsequently been informed by Licensing that our existing 10pm permission was issued in error.
We therefore now face our existing hours being reduced from 10pm to 5.30pm.
So, to put this into perspective:
We applied to renew an existing 10pm licence and requested a TWO-HOUR extension to midnight — primarily for safety reasons.
Instead, we now potentially face losing FOUR AND A HALF HOURS of the permission we already had.
We are not aware of any history of complaints arising from our outside seating operating under the existing 10pm licence.
⚠️ WHY DID WE ASK FOR MIDNIGHT? — SAFETY
This is perhaps the most important part of our application.
The barriers around our outside area aren't simply there to provide space for extra tables and chairs.
They create a clearly defined and managed customer area.
While those barriers are in place, customers know where the outside area begins and ends, and our staff have a defined area that they can supervise and manage.
Removing the barriers doesn't remove the customers.
People will still step outside to smoke, wait for friends, talk or get some fresh air.
Without the defined area and barriers, those customers can instead be standing within the street with no clearly defined customer area separating or containing them.
And 5.30pm is precisely when limited vehicle access begins on St Mary Street.
That is exactly the safety issue we were trying to address.
Our request to extend the licence until midnight was primarily so that the managed, barriered customer area could remain in place during the busy evening period.
From our perspective, removing that defined area at the same time vehicles begin entering the street doesn't resolve our safety concern — it potentially creates the very situation we are trying to prevent.
❓ WE HAVE ASKED FOR ANSWERS
Our renewal application is STILL UNDER CONSULTATION.
Highways and council licensing have submitted their objection before we had met with them on site, and before the consultation period has closed, before we had an opportunity to discuss their concerns, look at the actual layout and measurements together, provide evidence or propose possible safety measures.
Since receiving the objection, we have asked both Licensing and Highways a number of reasonable questions.
We have asked:
• What regulation, policy or safety standard requires our existing 10pm licence to be reduced to 5.30pm?
• What measurements or safety assessment were used to reach this conclusion?
• Why is removing a defined, barriered customer area at the same time limited vehicle access begins considered safer?
• What has changed since our existing 10pm licence was granted?
• Are there any recorded complaints or safety incidents relating to our outside area operating between 5.30pm and 10pm?
• Will this same interpretation now be applied consistently to other existing pavement licences on St Mary Street?
Despite asking these questions of Licensing and Highways, we have received no answers to them.
We have also asked for the opportunity to discuss the matter with Highways so that the actual location, measurements and our safety concerns can be properly considered.
Yet we have subsequently been advised by interim Licensing that the Highways objection will remain unchanged.
That is why we are now speaking publicly.
We aren't refusing to engage with the Council or objecting to reasonable safety requirements.
Quite the opposite.
We are actively asking to engage, asking for the evidence behind the proposed change and asking to discuss practical safety solutions.
🚶 WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS TO ST MARY STREET AT 5.30PM?
St Mary Street doesn't simply become an unrestricted ordinary road at 5.30pm.
The Traffic Regulation Order designates St Mary Street as a PEDESTRIAN ZONE, with specified exceptions allowing taxis and loading by goods vehicles between 5.30pm and 10.30am.
We have therefore specifically asked Dorset Council to identify the regulation, Highways policy, pavement-licence condition or safety standard which prevents our existing 10pm licence being renewed on the same hours.
We are still waiting for that answer.
❓ WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE REST OF ST MARY STREET?
This is potentially much bigger than The Black Dog.
Anyone who uses St Mary Street knows that outside tables, chairs and barriers form part of its evening environment.
There is also permanent public street furniture — including benches, bins and bollards — which remains in position and affects the available width.
If the Highways position is now that outside seating cannot remain once limited vehicle access begins at 5.30pm, surely every affected business deserves to know:
Will this interpretation be applied to EVERY pavement licence on St Mary Street?
Will other existing licences be reduced when they come up for renewal?
What minimum clearance is actually required, and where is that standard published?
What measurements have been taken at our outside area?
Will exactly the same measurements and safety criteria be applied consistently throughout the entire street?
On what basis can they reduce and refuse simply because it was previously issued in error?
⚓ WHAT ABOUT OTHER PARTS OF WEYMOUTH?
Elsewhere in Weymouth, we already see hospitality seating, pedestrian areas, permanent public seating, bollards and vehicle/loading requirements coexisting.
We aren't suggesting every location is identical.
We are asking what safety standard is being applied and whether that standard is being applied consistently.
🏪 WEYMOUTH TOWN CENTRE IS ALREADY STRUGGLING
Look around Weymouth town centre and you can see the vacant shops and empty commercial units.
Hospitality is one of the things that continues bringing people into the town centre after the shops close.
Outside seating contributes to a lively and welcoming atmosphere. It encourages residents and visitors to stay in town, supports independent businesses and helps protect local jobs.
At a time when we should all be working to reduce empty premises, encourage investment and increase footfall, established businesses need clear and consistent rules that allow them to invest and trade with confidence.
This isn't about putting business before safety.
Safety was the MAIN reason we asked for the extension in the first place.
❤️ WE ARE NOT ASKING FOR SPECIAL TREATMENT
We're asking for a fair, transparent and evidence-based process.
We applied to renew an existing 10pm licence, with no history of complaints known to us, and requested an extension to midnight primarily so that a defined, barriered and managed customer area could remain in place during the busy evening period.
We did not expect that renewal application to result in being told that the Council had previously made an error and that 10pm should instead become 5.30pm.
And despite asking Licensing and Highways to explain the basis for that proposed reduction, we have not received answers to those questions.
We believe it is reasonable to ask:
👉 What has changed since our existing licence was granted?
👉 What evidence makes 5.30pm necessary now?
👉 Why does removing a defined customer area when vehicle access begins make the situation safer?
👉 Why can't measurements and possible solutions be properly considered while the consultation is still ongoing?
👉 Will exactly the same interpretation be applied to every other affected business on St Mary Street?
🗣️ NOW WE'D LIKE TO KNOW WHAT WEYMOUTH THINKS
Have you used our outside seating between 5.30pm and 10pm?
Have you ever experienced a safety, accessibility or other problem because of it?
Do you believe having a clearly defined and managed customer area makes St Mary Street safer or less safe in the evening?
Do you want outside seating to remain part of St Mary Street's evening atmosphere?
If you're another St Mary Street or Weymouth town-centre business with an outside seating licence, we'd particularly like to hear about the hours and conditions you have been given.
Please comment and share.
Our application is STILL UNDER CONSULTATION.
We are not asking anyone to target individual Council officers or make personal comments. We simply want a meaningful consultation, answers to the questions we've raised, consistent treatment and the opportunity to sit down with Highways to find a safe and sensible solution.
We tried asking these questions directly first. We are still waiting for answers.
We applied to RENEW our existing 10pm licence and extend it to midnight primarily for safety reasons.
We didn't expect the result to be a proposed reduction to 5.30pm.
❤️ SUPPORT ST MARY STREET • SUPPORT WEYMOUTH • SUPPORT LOCAL BUSINESS
If you would like to formally lodge your opinion to licensing
📧[email protected]
The Black Dog
3 St Mary Street, Weymouth
Thankyou x
