Licensing Act Committee

Licensing Act Committee
Tuesday, 24th June 2025 at 6:00pm

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Cllr Gary Fuller
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Disclaimer: This transcript was automatically generated, so it may contain errors. Please view the webcast to confirm whether the content is accurate.

Cllr Jackie Meade - 0:00:00

Good evening and welcome to the meeting of the Licensing Act Committee.

This meeting will be webcast live to the internet.

Cllr Jackie Meade - 0:00:10

For those who do not wish to be recorded or filmed, you will need to leave the chamber.

For members, officers and others speaking at the meeting,

it is important that the microphones are used so that viewers on the webcast and others in the room may hear you.

Anyone with a mobile phone, please switch it to silent mode as they can be distracting.

I would like to remind members that although we all have strong opinions on matters under

consideration, it is important to treat members, officers and public speakers with respect.

So can we start with apologies for absence please?

Thank you, Chair.

FHDC Officer - 0:00:46

We've received apologies from Councillors Cooper, Mike Blakemore and Polly Blakemore

and we have Councillor Jim Martin here, a substitute for Mike Blakemore.

Thank you.

Cllr Jackie Meade - 0:00:53

Welcome, Jim.

Do we have any declarations of interest on this particular item please?

Cllr Jackie Meade - 0:01:04

I am seeing no declarations of interest so if I may hand you over to Andy Rush and he

will talk us through the notes on this particular item.

Thank you.

Folkestone & Hythe Officer - 0:01:15

Thank you chair and good evening members.

I will say just a few brief words to introduce the report.

The council is required to have a gambling statement of principles

which covers how we regulate gambling at a local level.

This statement needs to be updated every three years.

A gambling activity which comes within the scope of the statement

is for example bedding shops and premises with gaming machines

like pubs and amusement arcades.

Gambling activity that does not come within the scope of our remit

includes the National Lottery and online gambling,

which is a major concern in terms of risk and its growth.

The gambling principles have many similarities to Licensing Act principles,

i .e. prevention of crime and disorder

and protection of children and other vulnerable people.

The content and format of the statement is largely set by the Gambling Act

and updates from the Gambling Commission.

So we have very little leeway to move away from that.

The report asks the committee to approve the new draft statement to be published for public

consultation lasting six weeks and that the Director of Housing and Operations is given

the delegated authority to make minor changes based on the consultation response and then

present for approval by full council.

As the statement has to comply with the Gambling Act

and the guidance from the Gambling Commission,

there is in practice very few major changes that we could make,

but we would of course return to committee

should an outcome from the consultation make a change

that is much more major than we'd anticipate at this stage.

Thank you.

Cllr Jackie Meade - 0:03:05

Thank you very much.

So we're looking at this before it goes out to public consultation.

Would any of the committee like to ask any questions, raise any issues at all?

Councillor Fuller.

Just a brief comment really. One, it's really useful to have track changes.

Cllr Gary Fuller - 0:03:23

I always love to see track changes on a document.

And it was really interesting to read about the different types of gambling machines because I didn't know about them.

I didn't notice, and again obviously this is very much constricted by law as it were,

and I don't even know if it would be the right place to put it as an appendix or something of the policy,

but because obviously gambling has some quite big negative effects in the area,

there will be various organisations that support people with gambling problems and so on,

and I did wonder if it's worth having an appendices or something listing those organisations,

but I don't know if it's necessary for this policy so much as maybe a more day to day

operational thing because it's more strategic really isn't it? But I just thought I'd raise

that as a possibility. Other than that, great piece of work, thank you very much.

Cllr Jackie Meade - 0:04:16

Thank you Councillor Fuller. Maybe we can look at actually putting something on the

Council website. And I totally agree with you, people need to know where to go if they're

having an issue. Councillor Thomas.

Yes, thank you, Chair.

Just a couple of questions, really.

Cllr Paul Thomas - 0:04:29

So on page 51, we talk about temporary use notices and occasional use notices.

For both of those, do we actually record how many of those we actually asked for, and where

do we report those back to Council?

Is that something that we should be seeing periodically back through planning and licensing

in some way. Do we track them? I just think it might be a little bit of a gap in our arrangements.

I did look at the previous document and we didn't appear to do it previously.

Folkestone & Hythe Officer - 0:05:11

No, that's not something that we are required to do. We are annually required to submit

a return to the Gambling Commission,

but from memory that doesn't include,

it's just basic statistical data

on the numbers and types of different premises that we licence.

So that's not something that I recall that we're required to supply.

Just one other thing, which again,

I haven't seen any reference in here too.

Cllr Paul Thomas - 0:05:47

And that's to do with complaints against individual premises

that are licensed for whatever activity we've licensed them for.

And again, is that something that is collated and fed back?

Are we required to say...

So it's about performance of individual premises as much as anything else.

Thank you.

Folkestone & Hythe Officer - 0:06:16

Again, no, that's not something that would be included in the gambling statement principles.

As Andrea's pointed out, it's a very restricted document and the Act, as well as subordinate regulations,

instruct us on what should be included, as well as gambling commission guidance and codes of practice.

In terms of complaints, interestingly enough,

I did have a look before committee today

and we haven't had...

There isn't a record of any complaints

specifically about gambling in the district

for some considerable time.

Thank you. Can I just say why I think that's important?

Because, again, in here, one of the things we talk about,

Cllr Paul Thomas - 0:07:03

and we categorised them in terms of the risk to individuals.

So again, it's just trying to understand what the risk to people was,

particularly about those machines that encourage people to carry on betting

and whether there are people who have actually reached a point

where they or family members complained about the particular operation machine.

So thank you very much for that, I appreciate that.

Thank you, Councillor Lockwood.

Cllr Adrian Lockwood - 0:07:37

Thank you chair, can I just go a step further than Councillor Thomas if I may and ask about

enforcement where premises are not compliant with their licence, do we have to report that

and do we have many instances of that, people with the wrong machines or too many machines

or?

Folkestone & Hythe Officer - 0:07:52

So in terms of enforcement we carry out regular monitoring and we incorporate that with monitoring

of licensed premises under the Licensing Act 2003

for alcohol licensing and other licensing activities.

So we try to be sensible about the way that we approach.

We also bear in mind any potential concerns

that the police may have raised

and any of our other stakeholders,

particularly in connection with children

and other vulnerable persons.

So if concerns are raised, that will raise the risk assessment

and we will prioritise that for a visit.

And in terms of the way that it works, as previously mentioned,

it works very similar to the Licensing Act 2003

in that if a stakeholder or a member of the public has concerns,

they can ask for a review of the licence

and those concerns can be considered by committee

and the appropriate action taken.

So it's a very, very similar sort of framework that we work under,

but we haven't had in recent years

any major concerns brought to us about gambling.

Cllr Adrian Lockwood - 0:09:16

Thank you, that's helpful and it's good to hear

and it's good to see that we're slightly below the national average,

not good that anyone's affected by this but at least it's not as bad here as elsewhere.

Cllr Jackie Meade - 0:09:32

Thank you and I agree we have our processes in place with complaints as with licensing

complaints we do meet as a sub committee to discuss those and I've been on the committee

now for I think it's six years now and I've never seen one come through which tells me

that our policy is working. Would anyone else like to raise any issues, any questions at

all? No? No I'm not seeing. So can I have a proposer please? Councillor Thomas, seconder?

Councillor Fuller. So we are asking for this to be noted, for it to go out to consultation

and for the director to be able to make any minor changes should something come out of

Cllr Jackie Meade - 0:10:34

that public consultation. So all those in favour please show. And I can see that that

is unanimous. Thank you very much on this very hot day and that concludes our meeting

for this evening. Thank you very much. Thank you.

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Licensing Act Committee - Tuesday 24 June 2025, 6:00pm - Folkestone & Hythe webcasting