Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.  

Councillors Bond, Ford and Orhan sent their apologies for absence. 

Members are invited to identify any personal or prejudicial interests relevant to items on the agenda.  

Please refer to the attached guidance note.

There were no declarations of interest. 

To agree the minutes of the meeting held on Monday 10 July 2006

The committee agreed that minutes of the meeting held on 10 July were a correct record of the meeting. 

To receive a report from the Director of Environment, Street Scene and Parks on the Council’s draft Gambling Act 2005 statement of principles.  

                        (Report No.138)

The Licensing Committee is invited to consider the responses received to the public consultation on the draft statement of principles, completed on 13 October 2006 and to amend and/or agree the new draft (Draft 6 - 17 October 2006) statement of principles before it is submitted to Council for agreement on 8 November 2006.

Members are asked to note that the details of the response to the public consultation process, along with a new draft statement of principles (Draft 6 – 17 October 2006) will be circulated as “To Follow” next week.

The Committee received a report from the Director of Environment, Street Scene and Parks on the Council’s draft Gambling Act 2005 Statement of Principles.  The report also included the responses received to the public consultation.  

The Committee were invited to comment on the statement before it was considered for approval at Council. 

1.                  Changes to the draft Gambling Act 2005: Statement of Principles – presented by Sue McDaid (Acting Head of Trading Standards and Licensing). 

1.1       Sue McDaid presented the following information on the public consultation:-

a.      The consultation ended on 13 October 2006; 15 responses were received.

b.      90% thought that the statement was clear and understandable.

c.      70% supported the proposal that the Council should pass a “no casinos” resolution.   A “no casino” resolution would mean that Enfield would not receive or process any applications for casinos and that none would be given permission to operate in the borough.  

1.2            Licensing had made the following key changes to the draft statement of principles in response to the consultation:-

a.   In response to comments made by the Association of British Bookmakers the following sentence was added “The Council will consider limiting the number of betting machines where there is evidence that such machines have been or are likely to be used in breach of the licensing objectives” to Section 19.2.

b.      Section 19 was altered to reflect the fact that children (under 18) are not permitted to enter betting premises. 

c.      In response to a suggestion from the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board, in sections 14.4, 16.3, 18.2. 20.4 and 23.3 the words “truanting children under 18 years of age” were changed to just “truanting children”. 

d.      Section 2.2 had been amended to include adults with learning difficulties as “vulnerable persons”. 

e.      The National Association for Gambling Care’s recommendations that

·        Leaflets offering information helpful to gamblers with gambling problems and customer self exclusion forms (forms that enable customers to ask operators to refuse them entry to gambling establishments) should be on display, both prominently and discreetly.

·        ATMs and cash machines should be located separately from gaming machines and should display Gamcare information. 

2.                  Comments on Draft Statement of Principles

2.1.      The references relating to “truanting children” might be difficult to enforce, but members felt that they should be included, as they set out the Council’s view on the matter.

2.2.      The Council could not insert a clause prohibiting children from gambling into the Statement of Principles, as this was not prohibited in the Gambling Act.  For example there is a minimum age for the use of category D gaming machines so children can access and use them. 

2.3.      The Statement of Principles would be reviewed every 3 years so that if there were problems with any of the sections they could be altered. 

2.4.      The Committee noted the comments of Oliver Treacy of the Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health Trust regarding minors and increasing the availability of rehabilitation. 

2.5.      The paragraph requested by the Association of Bookmakers on enforcement  ...  view the full minutes text for item 436.