Judge clears way for more garages selling alcohol

City licensing chiefs are expected to face a flood of applications from garages wanting to sell alcohol after a landmark legal judgement.

In a controversial decision at the Court of Session, Lord Eassie said decisions to prevent BP and Marks & Spencer's Simply Food from selling alcohol at forecourts in Edinburgh and Glasgow were wrong and should be overturned.

Campaigners criticised the ruling and warned that allowing motorists to buy alcohol as they fill up with petrol could lead to an increase in drink driving, putting lives at risk.

The Licensing (Scotland) Act 2005 aimed to ensure that only garage forecourts proving they were the main source of groceries and fuel in a certain area would be able to continue selling alcohol. It aimed to break the link between alcohol and driving while protecting rural filling stations which may double as an area's supermarket.

The Act left decisions on interpretation and enforcement to local authorities, meaning some areas have allowed garage alcohol sales while others have refused them.

Lord Eassie's judgment said the test should be whether local people would be "materially disadvantaged or inconvenienced were that shop not to provide those retail facilities", a much looser requirement than that previously sought by Edinburgh and Glasgow licensing boards.

The ruling followed the appeal by BP and Marks & Spencer against a ruling three years ago banning the sale of alcohol at their garage forecourts in the two cities.

In 2008, Edinburgh's licensing board ruled two BP petrol stations which sold alcohol in sections run by Marks & Spencer - at Slateford Road and Builyeon Road, South Queensferry - could no longer do so. Marks & Spencer also operate at a BP petrol station in Ingliston.

The licensing boards can appeal to the UK Supreme Court following Lord Eassie's judgement.

BP is now to lodge requests for further filling stations, including three in Edinburgh, and similar applications are expected from Tesco and Sainsbury's.

But road safety charity Brake said the decision was a step backwards. It said: "There is the potential there to increase drink-driving numbers and that would be a mistake and could lead to deaths and serious injury on the roads. We would urge everyone to look carefully at these issues and think again".

And Carol Whittingham, chairman of the Campaign Against Drinking and Driving, whose son Steven was killed by a car driven by a drunken, drugged youth, said the judgement was "very disappointing".

She said: "We have enough problems in this country without having to add to it by allowing more and more establishments to have licences to sell alcohol. It illustrates the really casual attitude there is to alcohol in this country."

BP welcomed the ruling.

Brian Madderson, chairman of trade body RMI petrol, said: "There is no evidence that shows the sale of alcohol on forecourts has led to an increase in road injuries or serious driving offences. It's possible to drive to a hypermarket, buy shedloads of very cheap booze and then fill up at their petrol stations."