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Agenda and minutes
Venue: Town Hall, Queen's Square, Priory Meadow, Hastings, TN34 1QR. If you are attending the Town Hall for this meeting, please enter the building via the Queens Road entrance opposite the cinema.
Contact: Emily Horne on 01424 451719 or email ehorne@hastings.gov.uk
Items No. Item Appointment of Chair for this meeting
Minutes:
In accordance with the terms of reference of the Licensing Committee, the Chief Legal Officer invited nominations for the appointment of Chair for the duration of the meeting. Councillor Sabetian moved that Councillor Roberts should take the Chair. This was seconded by Councillor Dowling.
RESOLVED (unanimously) that Councillor Roberts be appointed as Chair for the duration of the meeting.
Apologies for Absence
Minutes:
None.
Minutes of the meeting held on 15 July 2014 (for information) PDF 66 KB
Minutes:
RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 15 July 2014
be approved and signed by the Chair as a true record.
Declarations of Interest
Minutes:
None.
Notification of any additional urgent items
Minutes:
None.
Additional documents:
- Appendix A - Application for Review , item 13. PDF 1 MB
- Appendix B - Site plan , item 13. PDF 201 KB
- Appendix C - Existing AGC Licences , item 13. PDF 242 KB
Minutes:
Councillor Roberts set out the procedure that the Sub-Committee would adopt (in accordance with Standard Practice), all parties confirmed they understood this.
The Chair agreed after hearing from the Chief Legal Officer, that parties had requested time for discussion and that once all parties had made their submissions a short adjournment would take place.
The Corporate Director, Environmental Health, submitted a report on a review of a gambling premises licence at Adult Gaming Centre Areas 1 & 2, Flamingo Arcade, East Beach Street, Hastings.
An amendment to the wording of the report was noted to paragraph 11 of the report as follows: the words ‘November 2014’ were replaced with the words ‘October 2014’.
Councillor Sabetian asked Mr Brown if the Council had written to the premises licence holders advising they segregate the areas of family entertainment from the adult areas within the premises and he sought clarification on the physical separation of the two areas. Mr Brown confirmed the segregation of the two areas was included in the conditions of the licence and defined in law. The conditions were appended to the report under Appendix C of the agenda. He stressed that both areas have to be separate and should be clearly defined by signage. Mr Brown stated that it is common practise that where there is a break between the two areas some premises put up a barrier and operate a buzzer to alert staff when customers move between the two areas. He said this advice is supported by the Gambling Commission and is enforced by the Council.
Mrs Davies, Licensing Officer, who brought the review made her submission on the grounds of the licensing objective “Protecting Children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by Gambling”. She said the review was necessary because the premises had failed two test purchases. The tests were designed to test the effectiveness of underage gambling policies and procedures in the absence of adequate data provided by the licensees themselves.
The first test purchase took place in April, 2 young people (aged 16yrs and 17yrs) were allowed unchallenged access to the premises and were able to use restricted machines. The premises failed; the compliance manager interviewed and a warning letter followed. Mrs Davies said they were assured that procedures would be tightened up. The second test purchase took place 6 months later in October, during half term week, 2 different young people (both aged 15yrs) were allowed unrestricted access to the premises and allowed to play restricted machines; they were not challenged by staff. The witness statements were appended to the report under Appendix A of the agenda. Both operations were led by staff from Hastings Borough Council supported by officers from both Sussex Police and the Gambling Commission.
Mrs Davies said that 5 other premises were also tested, and failed the initial test purchase, but the Flamingo Arcade was the only premises that failed twice. She went on to say the review was fully justified because the compliance manager had ... view the full minutes text for item 13.
Additional urgent items (if any)
Minutes:
None.
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