Issue - meetings

The Environmental Health Team Manager presented the report to the Committee.

The Council was responsible for issuing premises licences under the Gambling Act 2005 (the ‘Act’).

The Act had three licensing objectives:

• prevent gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder, or being used to support crime;
• ensure that gambling was conducted in a fair and open way; and,
• protect children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling.

The Council had a statutory requirement to prepare a Statement of Principles (the ‘Policy’), which would act as a guide for Members, applicants, responsible authorities, and members of the public.  Its aims were to promote fair, consistent, and proportionate decision making.

The Council was required to review and publish its policy every three years.

The Joint Environmental Health Service had conducted a review of the existing Policy and identified the need to:

• Modify the format of the Policy to ensure it remained cohesive and consistent with that of neighbouring local authorities;
• Ensure the Policy was consistent with legislation and statutory guidance;
• Increase the clarity of the Policy;
• Update local demographics; and,
• Provide clarity on delegations.

The fundamental principles of the Policy remained the same.  However, upon review it was felt the Policy would benefit from being restructured and reformatted, with some content clarified.

The current Policy and Local Area Profile were attached at Appendices 1 and 2.  The revised draft Policy and Local Area Profile were attached as Appendices 3 and 4.

An equality impact assessment had been carried out and a draft copy was attached at Appendix 5.

If approved by the Licensing and Gambling Acts Committee on 30^th April 2025, a 12 week public consultation would be carried out, the results of which would be presented back to the Committee for consideration before a final draft was recommended to Council for adoption.

The report detailed the review’s findings.

Questions / topics raised included: the requirement of Gambling Licences for small gatherings; the Council’s website not being friendly for finding out information and if social media could be utilised; and safeguarding.

Moved by Councillor Cathy Jeffery and seconded by Councillor Carol Wood

RESOLVED that: 1) The Committee reviews the revised draft Statement of Principles      under the Gambling Act 2005 and provides comments for consideration by the            Licensing and Gambling Acts Committee; and,

2)    The Committee notes the intention to carry out a public consultation and present the findings back to the Licensing and Gambling Acts Committee, before a final draft is recommended to Council.