Corporation of the Hall of Arts and Sciences v Albert Court Residents’ Association and others; Albert Court Residents’ Association and others v Westminster City Council [2011] EWCA Civ 430, [2011] All ER (D) 118 (Apr)
Neither the Licensing Act 2003 nor the Licensing Act 2003 (Premises licences and club premises certificates) Regulations 2005, (SI 2005/42) imposed any duty on a licensing authority to advertise an application or to take any steps to notify anyone affected by it that it had been made.
The sole duty to advertise and to give notice of an application was placed on the person making the application. An otherwise legitimate expectation could not require a public authority to act contrary to statute. Any failure by an authority to act in relation to its extra-statutory notifications could not give rise to any right to interfere with the performance of its statutory duties. When exercising any discretion or power of decision under the 2003 Act, a licensing authority had to do so with a view to promoting the licensing objectives.
However, once the authority was under an unqualified duty to carry out an act specified
