City of Stoke-On-Trent Council

Gambling Act 2005

City of Stoke-on-Trent Council

Statement of Principles

2016 - 2019

Adopted: January 2016

PART A

Section 1 Introduction

Section 2 Licensing Objectives

Section 3 Description/profile of Local Area

Section 4 Consultation

Section 5 Applications

Section 6 Declaration

Section 7 Responsible Authorities

Section 8 Interested Parties

Section 9 Exchange of Information

Section 10 Enforcement

Section 11 Duplication

Section 12 Local Authority Function

Section 13 Scheme of Delegation

PART B – Premises Licences

Section 1 General principles

Section 2 Adult Gaming Centres

Section 3 (Licensed) Family Entertainment Centres

Section 4 Casinos

Section 5 Bingo

Section 6 Betting Premises

Section 7 Tracks

Section 8 Travelling Fairs

Section 9 Provisional Statement

Section 10 Reviews

PART C – Permits / Temporary and Occasional Use Notices

Section 1 Unlicensed Family Entertainment Centre gaming machine permits

Section 2 (Alcohol) Licensed premises gaming machine permits

Section 3 Prize Gaming Permits

Section 4 Club Gaming and Club Machine Permits

Section 5 Temporary Use Notices

Section 6 Occasional Use Notices

Appendices

Appendix A Maps of Stoke-on-Trent area and location of current licences

Appendix B Table of Delegation of Licensing Function

Appendix C Responsible Authorities

Appendix D Consultee’s

Annex 1 Risk Assessment Form

PART A

1. Introduction

Stoke-on-Trent City Council (“the Licensing Authority”) in exercising its functions under the Gambling Act 2005 (“the Act”) is required to issue a Statement of Principles (“the Statement”) to cover a three-year period. The Licensing Authority consulted widely upon this Statement before finalising and publishing. Details of the consultation are contained in paragraph 4 and Appendix D. Our initial consultation took place between 09 June 2015 and 21 July 2015 and a further consultation took place between 19 August 2015 and 04 September 2015. A copy was placed on the website and was also available at Hanley Town Hall.

The Statement will be kept under review, and the Licensing Authority will make revisions to it, as it considers appropriate. A full review of the Statement will take place every three years.

The Statement is supported by a series of Appendices which provide important information aimed at helping those reading or referring to it. The information contained in the Appendices may be subject to change from time to time, but any such changes will not invoke the procedures for revisions of the Statement referred to above. Where this policy refers to the “Guidance”, this can be read via the Gambling Commissions web site at: www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/

It should be noted that this policy statement will not override the right of any person to make an application, make representation about an application or apply for a review of a licence, as each will be considered on its own merits and according to the statutory requirements of the Act.

2. Licensing Objectives

In exercising its functions under the Act the Licensing Authority must have regard to the licensing objectives as set out in section 1 of the Act. The licensing objectives are:

· Preventing gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder or being used to support crime;

· Ensuring that gambling is conducted in a fair and open way; and

· Protecting children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling.

3. Description/profile of Local Area

The Licensing Authority has included a description and profile of the local environment as a means of highlighting potential local areas of concern to applicants. This may be reviewed and updated to reflect changes to the local area and changes to licensed premises. There is no statutory duty on the Licensing Authority to complete an area profile; however benefits for both the Licensing Authority and Operators are a better awareness of the local area and risks. Importantly, risk in this context includes potential and actual risk, thereby taking into account possible future emerging risks, rather than reflecting current risks only.

Stoke-on-Trent is situated in North Staffordshire, on both the River Trent and the Trent and Mersey Canal and lies approximately halfway between Manchester and Birmingham. It is well served by public transport and has strong transport links.

The main areas for entertainment and leisure activities are:

(a) Hanley City Centre - this is a focal point for entertainment, cultural and leisure activities within the City and includes the City’s two casinos.

In recent years the city centre has seen a number of developments which have been completed and others that are currently underway.

(b) Tunstall, Burslem, Stoke, Fenton and Longton Town Centres – these residential areas lie to the north and south of the city centre with their own town centres with small retail areas.

(d) Population

The 2011 Census took place on 27 April 2011. Following extensive analysis and data quality checking by the Office for National Statistics www.ons.gov.uk the first results have been published.

At this stage only Local Authority level data has been published – containing details of household counts and age and gender breakdowns in 5-year intervals.

The population of Stoke-on-Trent was recorded as 249,000 - The highest recorded level since before the 1991 Census.

This compares with the 2001 Census figure of 240,636 - a 3.5% increase in total population. This compares with a 7.8% increase seen across England & Wales and a 5.2% increase across the rest of Staffordshire.

Age breakdown

Across Stoke-on-Trent the population aged 65 and over has decreased by 0.8% (down 300 persons to 38,800 over the 2001-11 periods).
This compares with a 10.9% increase seen across England & Wales and a 24.5% increase across the rest of Staffordshire over the same period. – The largest increase in any county in England.

Looking at particular age ranges –
The largest change has taken place in the younger age ranges – with a 9.6% increase in the number of children aged 0-9 years to 31,300 persons. This is significantly above the national increase of 3.6% and in stark contrast to the decrease of 3.8% seen across the county.

A further 7.2% increase has been observed in young adults aged 15-24 to 35,100 persons. While significant, this is below the 13.4% increase seen across the county and the 15.9% increase seen across England & Wales over the 2001-11period.

The information currently available suggests that far from ageing - the population of the city has become younger in both absolute – and relative terms - over the last ten years. This is in-line with the trend observed in a number of other large urban and metropolitan districts.

(e) Households

The number of occupied households has increased from 103,196 to 107,900, an increase of 4.6%. Average household size has therefore marginally decreased from 2.33 persons per household to 2.30 – in-line with trends observed elsewhere.

(f) Ethnicity

Within Stoke-on-Trent, people of a White British ethnic background account for 89.4% of the population, whilst people from a South Asian background (Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi) make up the largest ethnic minority group (4.6%, around 10,900 people).

(g) Deprivation

Stoke-on-Trent is highly deprived. Out of 326 local authorities in England, Stoke-on-Trent is the 16th most deprived (based on the 2010 Indices of Deprivation). There are a number of areas within Stoke-on-Trent that are among the top 5% most deprived areas in the whole of England. These include areas within the wards of Bentilee and Ubberley, Abbey Hulton and Townsend (both located in the east of the city), Burslem Central, Moorcroft, Etruria and Hanley (in the west and north) and Meir North (in the south east).

The Council will proactively engage with all responsible authorities as well as other organisations; public health, mental health, housing, education, community welfare groups and safety partnerships to ensure any new or varied applications are assessed taking the local area profile and any risks into account.

Maps of area are attached as Appendix A

4. Consultation

The Act requires that the Licensing Authority consult the following parties:

· The Chief Officer of Police

· One or more persons who appear to the authority to represent the interests of persons carrying on gambling businesses in the authority’s area

· One or more persons who appear to the authority to represent the interests of persons who are likely to be affected by the exercise of the authority’s functions under the Gambling Act 2005.

In determining this Statement the Licensing Authority has carried out extensive consultation with a wide range of individuals and bodies, and has given due consideration to the views expressed by these consultees. A list of consultees is attached as Appendix D

5. Applications

The Licensing Authority will consider all validly made applications on their individual merits and acknowledges the rights of persons to make representations on an application or to seek the review of a licence where this is allowed under the Act, provided that the Licensing Authority has not determined that any representations or grounds for review are frivolous, vexatious or will certainly not influence the authority’s determination of the application. Any representation or application for review must be supported by appropriate evidence and must be relevant to one or more of the licensing objectives.

6. Declaration

In producing this final Statement, the Licensing Authority declares that it has had regard to the licensing objectives of the Act, the guidance issued by the Gambling Commission, and any responses from those consulted on the policy statement.

7. Responsible Authorities

The Licensing Authority, in exercising its powers under the Act, to designate, in writing, a body which is competent to advise the authority about the protection of children from harm, has applied the following principles:

· the need for the body to be responsible for an area covering the whole of the Licensing Authority’s area

· the need for the body to be answerable to democratically elected persons, rather than any particular vested interest group etc

In accordance with the Gambling Commission’s Guidance to Local Authorities (“the Guidance”), the Licensing Authority designates Stoke-on-Trent’s Safeguarding Children Board for this purpose.

The contact details of all the responsible authorities under the Act are available in Appendix C or via the Council’s website at www.stoke.gov.uk

8. Interested Parties

Interested parties can make representations about licence applications, or apply for a review of an existing licence. These parties are defined in section 158 of the Act as follows:

“For the purposes of this part a person is an interested party in relation to any application for or in respect of a premises licence if, in the opinion of the licensing authority which issues the licence or to which the application is made the person:

a) lives sufficiently close to the premises to be likely to be affected by the authorised activities;

b) has business interests that might be affected by the authorised activities; or

c) represents persons who satisfy paragraph (a) or (b)”

The Licensing Authority is required by regulations to state the principles it will apply in exercising its powers under the Act to determine whether a person is an interested party. In particular, in determining whether a person lives sufficiently close to the premises in question the Licensing Authority will consider the following factors as per the Guidance:

· the size of the premises;

· the nature of the premises;

· the distance of the premises from the location of the person making the representation;

· the potential impact of the premises (number of customers, routes likely to be taken by those visiting the establishment);

· the nature of the complainant. This is not the personal characteristics of the complainant but the interests of the complainant, which may be relevant to the distance from the premises. For example, it could be reasonable for an authority to conclude that “sufficiently close to be likely to be affected” could have a different meaning for (a) a private resident (b) a residential establishment for young people who might be tempted to truant or abscond and (c) residential hostel for vulnerable adults;

· in respect of a person who has business interests, the ‘catchment’ area of the premises (i.e. how far people travel to visit); and

· whether the person making the representation has business interests in that catchment area that might be affected.”

This is not an exhaustive list and the Licensing Authority will not apply a rigid rule to its decision making. Each case will be decided upon its merits.

The Gambling Commission has recommended that licensing authorities state that interested parties include trade associations and trade unions, and residents’ and tenants’ associations. The Licensing Authority will not generally view these bodies as interested parties unless they have a member who can be classed as one under the terms of the Act, for example, lives sufficiently close to the premises to be likely to be affected by the activities being applied for.

Interested parties can be persons who are democratically elected such as councillors and MPs. If individuals wish to approach councillors to ask them to represent their views then care should be taken that the councillors are not part of the Licensing Committee dealing with the licence application. If there are any doubts then please contact the Licensing Authority at the address set out in Appendix C. A List of Councillors can be viewed on the Councils website www.stoke.gov.uk. Other than these persons, the Licensing Authority will require written evidence that a person ‘represents’ someone who either lives sufficiently close to the premises to be likely to be affected by the authorised activities and/or business interests that might be affected by the authorised activities. A letter from one of these persons, requesting the representation is sufficient.

9. Exchange of Information

The Licensing Authority, in fulfilling its functions and obligations under the Act, will exchange relevant information with other regulatory bodies. The exchange of relevant information will conform to the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and will be in accordance with the Council’s existing policies. The Licensing Authority will have regard to any Guidance issues by the Gambling Commission on this matter, as well as any relevant regulations issued by the Secretary of State under the powers provided in the Act

City of Stoke-On-Trent Council