In the absence of the Chairman and Vice Chairman who had tendered their apologies for the meeting it was;

Resolved: That Cllr. Pett be appointed as Chairman of the meeting.

To agree the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 10 June 2015, and of the Licensing Hearing held on 15 June 2015 as a correct record

Resolved: That the Minutes of the meeting of the Licensing Committee held on 10 June 2015, and of the Licensing Hearing on 15 June 2015 be approved and signed by the Chairman as correct records.

Any interests not already registered

No additional declaration of interest were made.

There were no actions.

 The Licensing Partnership Manager presented a report that detailed the proposed changes to the Council’s Statement of Principles Gambling Policy. She advised that Section 349 of the Gambling Act 2005 required all Licensing Authorities to prepare and publish a statement of the principles they proposed to apply to the statement for a 3 year period. The draft policy required approval for public consultation which would take place for 7 weeks between 20 July 2015 and 4 September 2015. Responses would be collated and brought back to the Licensing Committee on 29 September for consideration with the final draft presented to full Council for approval on 3 November 2015.

The Gambling Commission had just completed a consultation on its fifth edition of the guidance but it would not be available until after the date by which the Statement of Licensing Principles had to be published. The proposals within the draft guidance had been included in the draft policy.

The Licensing Partnership Manager tabled a new draft policy due to administrative errors that had been noticed after the publication of the agenda. The changes to the tabled document were:

•     The contents page went to item 11 instead of item 8 which included: operators, local area profiles and risk assessments,

•     “Operators” was a new heading following the Gambling Commissions code of Practice on Operators licences; and

•     Section 6, Local Area profiles included a map which showed where the Gambling Premises were within the district and those premises that had Licensed Premises and Club gaming machine permits and gaming permits (Clubs).

The Licensing Partnership Manager advised that the Gambling Commission requested policies were prescriptive in their requirements of what was expected in an application but this should be evidence based to comply with the Regulators Code. The Council had not received any evidence from charitable organisations or gambling organisations to demonstrate that there were significant gambling problems within the district and therefore there was no evidence that could be included.

In response to questions Members were informed that the within the last 3 years there had been no gambling applications and the number of premises had decreased. The Licensing Partnership Manager advised that as part of the guidance all applications (new and variation) had to provide a risk assessment of the area, other changes had been made within appendices 1, 2 and 3 due to the Partnership working. Appendices 5, 6 and 8 had been brought up to date with name and legislative changes and appendix 9 was new.

Resolved: That the draft Statement of Licensing Principles for the Gambling Act 2005 for public consultation be approved.