Meeting documents

The Gambling Act 2005 required that local authorities prepare and publish a Statement of Principles for determining applications and that such a policy was to be reviewed every 3 years.  The revised Statement of Principles must therefore be in place by 14 January 2019.  A consultation period of 6 weeks was recommended in the Gambling Commissions Guidance.  The draft copy of the revised Statement of Principles was attached in Appendix 1 for consideration by the Committee.  A list of consultees was included on page 42 of the agenda within Appendix 1.  After the public consultation, the draft policy would come back to the Licensing Committee for consideration before being considered by Cabinet and then recommended with or without modification to Full Council for adoption.

It was noted that there were only minor amendments recommended since there had been no major issues arising since the last review.  The Committee considered the more notable proposed changes. 

1.      A change in wording to allow the Head of Healthy Communities in consultation with the Chairman of the Licensing Committee to allow minor amendments including changes in legislation.  This is to allow minor amendments to be made faster and more simply.

2.      The addition of a section on Local Risk Assessments which have been required by licensees since April 2016.

3.      A new section referring to Local Area Profiles.  The draft local area profile is set out in appendix 2.  It will be a factual document and will be kept as a standalone document and not included in the public consultation.

Members were also asked to consider whether a resolution should again be passed under Section 166 of the Act not to issue casino premises licences and the draft Statement had been amended to refer to this recommended resolution.

Members asked if the draft statement was similar to that adopted by other Councils and were assured that it was.  There was concern about money laundering and whether there could be more wording added to the draft policy to prevent this within the district. 

It was also asked whether there should be a compliance manager named for each licensed premises.  This was not currently done but it was agreed that Officers would look into whether this would be possible.

It was agreed that further consideration would be given to these community safety issues and any required amendments to the draft statement be delegated to the Head of Healthy Communities in consultation with the Chairman of the Licensing Committee.

Members also requested typographical amendments to the draft Statement on pages 20 and 24 and that the Plan at Appendix 2 of the report be checked for accuracy.

It was noted that there were only 5 betting shops in the district.

Councillor H Wallace entered the meeting at 6.42 pm during the above item.