In its response to the DCMS consultation, the CCPR voiced concern that the proposed fees for Club Premise Certificates represent a very significant increase from current costs associated with obtaining a Club Registration Certificate and will have a detrimental impact on voluntary sector sport and recreation clubs.

For many thousands of small community organisations that operate on very tight budgets and struggle for survival, meeting the new fees could force many of them to close their bars, or even cease providing sporting opportunities to their communities.

The CCPR believes that the mechanisms used to calculate the new fees are fundamentally unjust. Rateable value takes no account of the not-for-profit nature of most sporting organisations and makes no allowances for the charitable purposes of some organisations, resulting in some small sports clubs paying the same fees as city-centre night clubs!.

The CCPR cite Wednesbury Sports Union as an organisation that will be affected by the proposed increases in licensing fees. The Union represents over 300 sports men and women, including approximately 100 junior members and is similar in structure to the ‘multi-hub sports clubs’ that current government strategy is aiming to encourage.

The Union operates a bar, which not only provides a social outlet for members but helps to support the clubs through the proceeds from bar sales. The Union illustrates the huge amount of social capital and value that clubs of this nature offer their communities as social places for people to come together and become engaged in physical activity.

Geoff Webb, President of Wednesbury Sports Union, states: "The Union is a body managed and supported by willing volunteers who would be deeply distressed and alarmed to find that their efforts were going to pay a license fee at the levels being proposed.

"It would appear that the Minister is prepared to hammer another nail into [the] amateur sport coffin; when will government realise that the efforts of so many volunteers should not be treated in such cavalier fashion… The end result could be that sports clubs throughout the country will be either closing their bar facility or even their premises."

Local sports clubs are the backbone of sport provision in the UK and 26% of all formal volunteering takes place in sport and recreation. It is very disappointing that the proposed fees levels will undermine this huge contribution to community life, because no specific impact analysis has been done.