Approved premises licences

There are a number of venues across Cumberland that are licenced to hold ceremonies, including weddings and civil partnerships. These venues are known as approved premises and you can apply to have your venue licenced too.

How to apply to become an approved premises

To start your application, please contact us.

Registration service

Email: CumberlandRO@cumbria.gov.uk
Telephone: 0300 373 3730

You can also download the terms and conditions.

The licence fee

The fee is:

• £1,665 for a three year licence
• £2,560 for a five year licence

Information you will need

Before you submit your application you will need:

• application form completed
• confirmation of the fees being paid 
• floor plan of the premises with the rooms to be licensed clearly marked
• boundary plan of the premises with any outdoor linked areas for ceremonies clearly marked
• confirmation that any land we cross from the main highways is owned by you and we have your permission. Alternatively, if we need to cross land/use roads or lanes owned by someone else can we have their written permission to access your property
• any existing premise licence or evidence that you are a registered business
• evidence of your current and valid public liability insurance 
• a compliant risk assessment which evidences no outstanding high or medium risk concerns which have not been actioned to date
• a signed fire risk assessment disclaimer.

After you have applied

Once we receive your application, we will arrange a visit to the premises by a registrar for the local area to inspect the premises, and discuss the application to ensure the relevant criteria and conditions are met.

Advertising your application

After we have confirmed that the premises has met the criteria and conditions laid down, the application will be advertised on our website for a statutory notice period of 21 days. This allows residents to view the application and to make any objections. 

Objections

Providing no objections are received your venue will be granted approved premises status, once the 21 day period has ended. 

If any objection(s) are received to an application, the approval process will be suspended. Only once the objection(s) has been investigated and it is established as to whether or not it affects the approval of the premises, will the process continue to either grant or refuse the application.  

How long it takes to process an application

Please allow approximately 6 to 8 weeks for any application (without objection) to be completed.  We don’t carry out any venue inspections in January, July or August.

If you are applying to become an approved premises, you should not advertise or take bookings for any marriage and civil partnership ceremonies until the application is completed and approved premises status has been granted.