Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Patterson.

To receive any declarations of interest by members in items on the agenda.  For any advice on declarations of interest, please contact the Monitoring Officer.

No declarations of interest were received.

Members should indicate which item(s) they wish to speak on and the nature of their concern/question/request for clarification.

No visiting members had registered to speak at the meeting.

The minutes of the meeting of the Licensing Committee dated 8 September 2015 were submitted.

Councillor Williams wished to add, to the third paragraph from the bottom of page 2, that he asked Mrs Smith twice what her turnover was, and she declined to answer on both occasions. He said that he wanted to do this because he believed it was important to set out that the Councillors’ interest lay with all members of the public. The amended sentence would therefore read as follows:

‘Councillor Williams raised concern over the fact that some stall holders may not be small businesses, and asked Mrs Smith twice what her turnover was, which she declined to answer on both occasions. Mrs Smith proceeded to respond to Councillor Williams by saying that it was…’

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the Licensing Committee dated 8 September 2015 be approved as a correct record, subject to the agreed amendments.

Ms Degiorgio, the Senior Licensing Officer, presented a report on the Revised Statement of Principles for the Gambling Act 2005 Policy. She said that as a result of the consultation responses, and due to the Gambling Commission’s Guidance not having been published in time for the statutory amendment of the policy, the Council opted to undertake a ‘light touch’ review of the existing Statement of Principles. She said that the Council determined, however, to complete a more thorough review in early 2016.

Councillor Hills wished to clarify how light the ‘light touch’ review of the existing Statement of Principles was. He also said that he noticed that two of the four documents in Appendix A were duplicates, and wished to have a response on this.

Mr Harris, Senior Lawyer (Contentious), explained that the statement put for approval at this meeting was ultimately unchanged from the current policy that was in place. However, the current policy would soon be out of date, so for legal compliance purposes the Committee would need to recommend this document for ratification at Full Council. He elaborated that there would then be a consultation on a new draft, which would incorporate the Gambling Commission’s recently published guidance.

Mr Harris said that the missing appendix had been a clerical error, but that all responses were about a previous draft policy, so were no longer applicable to this one.

Councillor Woodward asked what lessons had been learned from this. Mr Harris said that this issue had arisen because the Gambling Commission had not finished their consultation until June, and therefore the content of their policy could not be anticipated. The Gambling Commission guidance could not be acted upon until it was published, and therefore the Council was not to blame, as it was trying to meet its statutory obligations.

Councillor Woodward asked whether the draft guidance could have simply been ignored until the finalised guidance had been published. Mr Harris responded that the Council had tried to produce a Statement of Principles based on the draft guidance, but received heavy criticism during the consultation process for this approach, and so it was agreed not to change it. He clarified that although the guidance had now been published, it had come too late for the Council to then reply fully to the consultation responses and so it was the case that the existing statement had to be adopted for the interim.

Councillor Hills asked whether there would have to be another meeting for agreement of a further consultation, to which Mr Harris replied that there would not, as a grant for consultation had already been approved. He asserted that the Councillors would need to approve the new policy, however.

RESOLVED:

That the current statement of principles be recommended to Full Council, and that a revised statement of principles reflecting the latest guidance from the Gambling Commission is considered by the Committee in the new year.

To consider any other items which the Chairman decides are urgent, for the reasons to be stated, in accordance with Section 100B(4) of the Local Government Act 1972.

Ms Degiorgio, the Senior Licensing Officer, provided Members with an update on enforcement and safeguarding.

The next meeting will take place on 25 January 2016 at 6pm.