CAFES, pubs and restaurants in the Petersfield area look set to have to pay before they can put tables and chairs out on the pavements of the town. At a meeting of East Hampshire District Council last Wednesday, principal licensing officer Angela Howes told members that cafe owners who put chairs and tables on the pavement were currently acting outside the law. The proposal was to introduce licences which would have to be paid for by businesses which would allow them to officer al fresco dining and drinking for customers. "At the moment it's a matter for Hampshire County Council to act if there are complaints because these tables and chairs are on the highway, but if we regularise the situation we can allow people to put out the chairs and tables if they want to pay, and we also have a way of dealing with the matter if there are complaints. "But at the moment, East Hampshire District Council has no policy." Mrs Howes said the issue had come to a head because East Hampshire District Council was receiving complaints from members of the public who had difficulty negotiating wheelchairs and pushchairs through the tables and chairs on pavements. "It's not something which is regulated at the moment and we have no way of dealing with complaints," said Mrs Howes. Marjorie Harvey, who represents Rowlands Castle, said she was concerned about the issue. "People are already putting tables and chairs out on the pavements in my area and members of the public are having to walk in the road to get round them," she told fellow councillors. "Parish councillors are receiving complaints about the difficulty of access and when they talk to the people putting out the chairs and tables they are being told 'we can do this because we are going to pay' and I think that is totally unacceptable." Mrs Howes said EHDC's licensing committee had recommended, in April, that the council should adopt a policy to enable the licensing of tables, chairs and portable advertising boards on the highway. But, she said, there were legal issues over the licensing of advertising boards which were being examined by the authority's legal department. She recommended that the licensing of the tables and chairs should go ahead with an extension of the scheme to include the boards when legal issues were resolved. She recommended that the cost of the application was a one-year licence should be £130 and a refund of £65 given if the application was refused. But some councillors felt that there had not been enough consultation with businesses across East Hampshire. Keith Moon reflected the views of many members when he told the meeting: "I would like to propose this is deferred and passed to the economic development officers for the East Hampshire business initiative group to consult with businesses and produce a report back to full council in due course." Members voted to put back the matter for further consultation.