Issue - meetings

The purpose of this report is for the Licensing and Appeals Committee to consider the draft Statement of Licensing Principles (“the Policy”) prepared by officers and the public consultation responses in order to recommend the adoption of a final Statement of Licensing Principles to Full Council.

Audio Recording – Start of Item – 7 minutes 37 seconds

RESOLVED:

(1)       That the Licensing Officer be requested to add some clarification to C3.1 of the Policy regarding Casinos;

(2)       That the Licensing Officer add a paragraph at Section E1 that Local ward councillors should be able sit on a sub-committee determining an application in their ward, or neighbouring ward, if they believe their local knowledge would be beneficial to the decision making process provided their participation is in accordance with the Member’s Code of Conduct.

RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL:That the Gambling Act 2005: Statement of Licensing Principles 2019-2022 (as amended by the Licensing and Appeals Committee) be adopted.

REASONS FOR DECISION:

(1)       Licensing authorities are required to publish a policy every three years by virtue of section 349 of the Gambling Act 2005 (“the Act”);

(2)       A new policy must be published by 3 January 2019 to comply with this statutory requirement;

(3)       The Policy builds on the effectiveness of the existing policy with minor amendments to reflect changes in legislation, statutory guidance, consultation responses and further clarification on the requirement for local area risk assessments.

Audio Recording – Start of Item – 7 minutes 37 seconds

The Licensing Manager presented the report entitled Gambling Act 2005: Statement of Licensing Principles 2019-2022. The following appendices were attached to the report:

Appendix A - Proposed Statement of Licensing Principles;

Appendix B - Summary of Responses to Statement of Licensing Principles;

Appendix C - Response to Consultation.

The Licensing Manager expressed concern at the number of Members present to consider this extremely important Policy.

The Chairman agreed to consider the request from Members all future meetings start at 7.30pm.

The following Members contributed to the debate (in order of initial contribution):

Councillor Simon Harwood;

Councillor Gerald Morris;

Councillor Val Bryant;

Councillor Jean Green

Councillor Lisa Nash

Section 4 of the report detailed that no alternative options were considered

The following amendments to the Policy were proposed:

·                That clarification be added to Paragraph C3.1 of the Policy regarding Casinos;

·                That Local ward councillors should be able sit on a sub-committee determining an application in their ward, or neighbouring ward, if they believe their local knowledge would be beneficial to the decision making process provided their participation is in accordance with the Member’s Code of Conduct.

It was proposed, seconded and

RESOLVED:

(1)       That the Licensing Officer be requested to add some clarification to C3.1 of the Policy regarding Casinos;

(2)       That the Licensing Officer add a paragraph at Section E1 that Local ward councillors should be able sit on a sub-committee determining an application in their ward, or neighbouring ward, if they believe their local knowledge would be beneficial to the decision making process provided their participation is in accordance with the Member’s Code of Conduct.

RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL:That the Gambling Act 2005: Statement of Licensing Principles 2019-2022 (as amended by the Licensing and Appeals Committee) be adopted.

REASONS FOR DECISION:

(1)       Licensing authorities are required to publish a policy every three years by virtue of section 349 of the Gambling Act 2005 (“the Act”);

(2)       A new policy must be published by 3 January 2019 to comply with this statutory requirement;

(3)       The Policy builds on the effectiveness of the existing policy with minor amendments to reflect changes in legislation, statutory guidance, consultation responses and further clarification on the requirement for local area risk assessments.