David Gregory - Commonwealth Games Fencer

This month, Allington Hughes has added another highly talented athlete to the ever growing list of local sporting talent that we are sponsoring.

David Gregory is the reigning British Epee Champion and currently ranked 6th in the UK. David is a certain pick for team GB at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow starting later this month and has been hard in training over the last few weeks.

David is another athlete who goes under the radar in terms of funding by his national sporting body. With the Epee division of Fencing gaining very low levels of television coverage, the athletes involved find it very difficult to make a living from performing the sport due to lack of sponsorship opportunities. 

David has been juggling his training with a number of jobs in order to try and fund his goal of winning a medal at the Glasgow games.

Allington Hughes are delighted to give David a helping hand in his mission, and we are also thrilled that another of our projects, the D2R Foundation, are working with David in order to ensure he gets the best possible support to compete at the highest level when in Glasgow.

We wish David the best of luck and will be sure to keep everyone updated on his progress and how he gets on in Glasgow towards the start of August.

Marketing Consultant Louie Middlehurst with British Epee Fencing champion David Gregory

The D2R (Dreams to Reality) Foundation - Allington Hughes Performance Grant

The D2R Foundation and Allington Hughes Ltd have signed a strategic agreement to assist with the development of athlete performance. 

The partnership sees the North Wales based law-firm, join forces with the newly established sports foundation, which aims to empower youth athletes by giving them the tools and access to services and support they need to achieve their goals. 

The D2R Foundation was launched last month, and the signing of such a partnership is to be expected given the high-profile athletes already on its roster.

 The announcement reaffirms Allington Hughes’ commitment to supporting the local community; and builds upon its already impressive portfolio of activities and athletes, which includes Olympic-level Sailor Chris Russell, the Chester Food& Drink Festival, The North Wales Crusaders Rugby League team, Commonwealth Games fencer David Gregory, Snowdonia’s Charity Cyclists plus agricultural shows such as the Flint and Denbigh show and The Royal Welsh Agricultural Show. 

The Foundation said earlier: 

“Having Allington Hughes support the D2R Foundation is extremely exciting”, said Chris Russell, Founder of D2R.  “A lot of the hidden costs of professional sport are the non glamorous things – to some extent its easier to cover the bigger, more publicly visible costs, however the travel, event entry fees, small amounts of new gear at critical times…those are the things which make a big difference to an athlete.  By removing the obstacle these athletes face having to focus on finding financial support, we can enable them to focus on what they do best”. 

Louie Middlehurst, Marketing Manager for Allington Hughes added, “Having supported many local athletes and teams in the past with their mission to perform at an elite level, we understand how important a strong support network can be. It is with great pride we are now involved with the D2R foundation, and hope that we can provide as much help as possible to turn the young talent of our generation into the home grown world class athletes of the future.”   

This partnership has enabled both the D2R Foundation and Allington Hughes to create a unique offering for local athletes.

The Allington Hughes Performance Grant will be administered through the Foundation, and will target the key essentials for performance enablement.  

 “The grant system is a great idea we've come up with not only to help administer support in a structured and fair way, but to ensure that the right athlete has access to funds at the right time.  It adds a lot of sustainability to our funding program, and more importantly, it adds an extra layer of financial security and stability for our athletes”, Chris adds. 

 “By creating a grant with the Foundation, we hope to enable a select group of elite youth athletes who have been overlooked for funding by their respective sporting bodies. Allington Hughes believes very strongly in grass roots development and hope to be a major facilitator in the development of these young people both in and out of their sporting lives. Once again it is truly a pleasure to be involved with a project that can help so many people, and really give them the best chance at achieving their goals.”  added Louie. 

The D2R Foundation and Allington Hughes begin their exciting partnership effective immediately, and look forward to publishing regular updates of how the athletes are getting on in training and competition. 

There will be regular updates of the D2R foundation athletes in the photo album on our Facebook page. 

Louie Middlehurst of Allington Hughes Ltd, Chris Russell - Founder of D2R Foundation, Georgina Outten - D2R athlete, Jade Povey - D2R Athlete

For more information on the D2R Foundation please visit www.d2rfoundation.com

For more information on Allington Hughes please visit www.allingtonhughes.com

Sporting and Shooting Rights, Do you know the Law?

Sporting rights generally include the right to shoot, fish and hunt. The rights to hunt and shoot and sporting rights together with other associated rights such as the right to rear, preserve or keep game can exist in various ways. For example, the landowner may own the land and the right to hunt, shoot etc. This does not cause any problems. However, problems can and do arise in the following situations:

1. When the rights to shoot are held by the landowner and the land is farmed or occupied by a tenant; or

2. The land is owned by one person but the sporting rights are held by a previous owner of the land who retained the rights when the land was sold off.

The owner of the shooting rights can take reasonable steps to preserve that right, steps which would otherwise be a trespass. The emphasis here being on "reasonable steps" as a right to shoot for example does not in the absence of express additional words imply the right to bring game onto the land or rear game on the land.

It is essential that both parties are familiar with the wording of the original grant. More often than not, the owner of the sporting rights assumes that the right to shoot gives them an automatic right to rear game on the land. This may be as a result of not knowing the difference between the right to shoot and the right to rear game etc. Or, it may well be that the person wishing to retain the rights intended that the associated rights of rearing game should be reserved but the advisor at the time failed to include the correct wording in the original grant. It is therefore essential that the advice of a suitably qualified person is obtained when drafting clauses relating to shooting rights etc.

If the wording does include both a right to shoot and rear game, overstocking of land with game may justify a claim for damages by person affected by the overstocking. If the original grant reserved only a right to shoot the owner of the right will have no protection against such a claim. If the wording in the deed allows for the rearing or preserving game this could result in protection from what would otherwise be a nuisance.

These issues can be avoided if the correct advice is sought ideally when the grant is made but failing that before any rights are exercised.

For more information on this or any other Agricultural Matter please contact Edward H. Nutting, Director  at Allington Hughes Limited t/a Cyfraith JRL Law on: 01492 641 222 or email edward@jrl-law.co.uk. 

Save Legal Aid - Justice Alliance UK

In recent weeks and months the Government have produced proposals to dramatically change the provision of Legal Aid in matters before the Criminal courts. This has received wide press coverage and has been heavily criticised by lawyers, Judges and other professionals. It is argued that the proposals will have a drastic effect on the operation of the Criminal Justice System as a whole and will lead to innocent people being left unrepresented.

At Allington Hughes we have been involved in many efforts to try to persuade the Government to realise that the proposals will cause irreparable damage to the Criminal Justice System, but unfortunately they remain determined.

The changes do not just affect matters before the Criminal Courts, there have been changes to many other areas of law such as assistance for victims of domestic violence and bringing Judicial Review proceedings to challenge unlawful actions by the state. These changes will prevent many people having a voice and render them unable to fight for their fundamental freedoms as human beings.

At Allington Hughes we have a long history of providing legally aided assistance to many different people from all walks of life, who unfortunately find themselves in need of advice. Often it is due to circumstances they never thought they would have found themselves in. This is why the maintenance of a Legal Aid system is vitally important to everyone in our country.

The Justice Alliance UK have recently published a video which helpfully shows that the changes could affect everyone in some way or another. For anyone who has read the recent press reports and thought changes to Legal Aid do not affect them, this video will certainly make them reconsider their position.

Please take the time to watch this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjOigFHdVIY&feature=youtu.be 

Stephen Fry supports the fight for Legal Aid.

You can sign the petition to save Legal Aid here: http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/david-cameron-uk-government-save-legal-aid-to-protect-access-to-justice-for-all

Employment Law Update 06/06/14

In this Employment Law update we will give you an overview of the changes to the flexible working regulations and the findings of the European Court of Justice in the case of British Gas-v-Lock 2014

Flexible Working

On the 30^th June the right to request flexible working will change.

Until the 30^th June the right to request flexible working only applies to parents of children under 17 or 18 in the case of parents of disabled children, or to those caring for an adult.

From the 30^th June any eligible employee can apply for flexible working for any reason.

  

Eligibility

All employees have a statutory right to request flexible working provided that:-

• They have worked for their employer for 26 continuous weeks 

• They have not made a request within the last 12 months. An employee can only make one statutory request in any 12 month period

Employees who have been employed for less than 26 weeks, agency workers and office holders do not have a statutory right to request flexible working.

Now is the time to review your company policy in respect of flexible working to ensure that it is up to date.  It might be however that you do not have a flexible working policy and now wish to implement one to ensure consistency in handling requests.

It should be noted that the current strict statutory procedures for dealing with flexible working requests will be dispensed with after the 30^th June and instead there will be a duty on employers to deal with requests in a ‘reasonable’ manner.  The current statutory framework is however a good place to start when drafting your company policies and procedures.

Holiday Pay

The European Court of Justice (ECJ), in the case of British Gas-v-Lock, has held that the Working Time Directive requires that worker’s statutory holiday should not be limited to basic salary where commission is part of remuneration. Therefore, if you have employees who earn commission which is directly linked to their work, then their holiday pay should be comparable to their normal pay so that they do not suffer a detriment i.e. a reduction in pay for taking holiday leave.

We would advise that that any holiday pay policy be reviewed to take account of this recent case to ensure that commission or other relevant variable payments are factored into holiday pay.

  

Should you want more information on the issues contained in this update,

 or any other employment issue, please do not hesitate to contact a member of our Employment Team on 01978 291000 - Wrexham, 01244 312166 - Chester, 01978 641222 - Llanrwst

We also hold a free Employment Law drop in service at our Wrexham office every Monday between 9.30am-12.30pm, and in our Chester office every Tuesday between 9.30am-12.30pm.

Melissa Bramwell of the Employment Team. 

Nightingale House Ladies Fashion Lunch 2014

Allington Hughes recently attended a Ladies Fashion Lunch to raise funds for Nightingale House Hospice in Wrexham. 

The fund raising event was held in the beautiful surroundings of Eaton Park.  Guests were treated to a champagne reception and canapes in the Long Room. There were also luxury stalls so that guest could do some shopping before the delicious lunch provided by ATJ Catering. This was followed by a fashion show with volunteers from the hospice sporting clothes provided for by Debenhams. 

There were some very generous raffle prizes to be won after dinner including a Four Ball round of golf at Carden Park Hotel and a high tea at The Grosvenor, Pulford.  

Four of the firms Directors took a guest each along to make up a table with Rachel Wynn Jones quoting 'It was a hugely enjoyable event and hopefully a great deal of money was raised for such a worthy cause.'

From left to right: Melissa Griffiths, Rachel Wynn Jones, Alison Stace and Alison Brebner

Alcohol Licensing - What Do You Need to Know?

Does my business need an alcohol licence?

If you want to sell or supply alcohol in England and Wales, you must have a licence or authorisation from a licensing authority. These days, this is obtained from your local council. You will need a licence if you run a pub, bar or nightclub or if you plan to sell alcohol at your late-opening café, takeaway, theatre or cinema. You will also need a licence if you plan to sell alcohol at a village or community hall.

What type of licence do I need?

If you wish to sell alcohol on a permanent basis in your business you will need to apply for a premises licence. Individuals seeking to supply alcohol or authorise the supply of alcohol must apply for a personal licence. Qualifying members’ clubs such as the Royal British Legion and rugby clubs must apply for a club premises certificate if they wish to sell alcohol.

How do I apply for an alcohol licence?

You must complete an application form and send it to your local council, along with the appropriate fee. The form will guide you as to whom you must send copies of your application, this depends upon the application you wish to make. The police and other “responsible authorities” (e.g. Fire and Rescue, environmental health authority, local health board, planning authority etc.) need copies in relevant circumstances. Some councils

accept electronic applications and your local council’s website should provide you with the necessary information.

What else can I apply to the Council for?

You can apply for a temporary event notice (if you are holding a specific event which includes the sale of alcohol), authority for designated supervisors (for the person responsible for the day to day running of the business) or an application for a variation or a review (a responsible authority or other person may ask the licensing authority to review a licence at any stage following the grant of a premises licence).

How is my application determined?

If your application is complete and no responsible authority or other person objects to it, the licensing authority must grant your application, subject only to conditions which are consistent with the operating schedule and relevant mandatory conditions in the Licensing Act 2003. This is a simple administrative or paper exercise for the local authority’s officials. If representations are made, the licensing authority will decide whether those representations are justified objections (not frivolous ore vexatious). If it decides that they are relevant, it must hold a hearing to consider them.

What happens at the hearing?

The hearing will be held at the local authority’s premises and will take the format of a more informal version of a court hearing. You can attend yourself to make your representations or you can appoint a Solicitor or someone else to speak on your behalf. Having heard your submissions and those of the person(s) who object to your application, the licensing authority may:

• Grant your application subject to conditions which the licensing authority considers appropriate for promoting the licensing objectives.

• Reject one or more requested licensable activities

• Reject the application

• Refuse to specify a person as a designated premises supervisor.

If you disagree with the decision, there is a right of appeal to your local magistrates’ court.

Your application is important as its determination will have an impact upon your business. We can help you with:

1. General advice on licensing issues

2. The application process

3. Representation at any hearing.

Gwenno Price–Jones is a Director of Allington Hughes Limited and is based at our Llanrwst office. Gwenno specialises in litigation, family and licensing matters and can advise you in relation to your

licensing queries. Call Gwenno on 01492 641222 or e-mail gwenno@jrl-law.co.uk if you need assistance.

Licensing advice is now available at Allington Hughes Limited.

Director Gwenno Price-Jones can assist with Alcohol Licensing matters.