Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies.

The Committee noted that apologies had been received from Councillors B Harris, Tucker, Laming and Fitzhenry.

To approve and sign as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 5^th November 2012 and to deal with any matters arising, attached.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 5^th November 2012 be approved and signed as a correct record.  (Copy of the minutes appended to the agenda and circulated with the signed minutes).

Report of the Head of Legal, HR and Democratic Services requesting that the Committee approve the content of the Application Pack for use in the large casino process and the overall composition of the Advisory Panel, attached.

The Committee considered the report of the Head of Legal, HR and Democratic Services requesting approval of the draft Application Pack for use in the large casino licensing process, the composition of the Advisory Panel, the terms of reference for the Licensing Committee and Advisory panel and a storage protocol to be used at stage 2 of the process. (Copy of report circulated with the agenda and appended to the signed minutes).

The following was noted:-

• that most of the appendices were statutory requirements and the two main issues for consideration were appendix 15, terms of reference for Licensing Committee and Advisory Panel and appendix 17, membership of the Advisory Panel;
• that it was essential that all members of the Advisory Panel were experts in their field and that wherever possible internal officers would be considered, but this would be dependant on their expertise and availability to be seconded to and commit totally to the casino process;
• the Advisory Panel would evaluate each of the applications against the Evalulation Criteria and Scoring Matrix and it would be the Licensing Committee’s responsibility to which application offers the greatest overall benefit to the City; however, if there was only one application a premises licence would be awarded at stage 1 of the process and there would be  no need for stage 2 or an Advisory Panel;
• that money had been ring-fenced in the gambling budget to cover costs which would cover the recruitment of any outside specialists if required;  this money could only be utilised for gambling expenses;
• that applicants had to pay an application fee of £10000 prior to stage 1 of the process as well as an annual fee when the application was granted;
• appendix 6 and 7 – whether a person is “sufficiently close to the premises” is to be determined by the Council in accordance with guidance on this point;
• appendix 13 – 2.5 - “on-site security provision” to be added.
• that any communication with applicants must be channelled in writing to a single point of contact and a single email address to ensure a proper record of communications; and if committee members were contacted by members of the public in relation to the casino application process, they should refer them to the single point of contact;
• that planning permission was not required prior to the application being granted and planning and licensing applications were separate;
• appendix 15 – for ease of reference, the full name “licensing committee” to be used throughout;

RESOLVED

1. that the Committee approved the content of the Application Pack for use in the large casino licensing process, as well as the information Storage protocol; 
2. that the Committee approved the overall composition of the Advisory Panel who would assess applications and report to the Committee in due course;  and
3. that authority be delegated to the Head of Legal, HR and Democratic Services, after consultation with the Chair of the Licensing Committee, to:-