The Head of Shared Regulatory Services presented a report, the purpose of which, was to seek Council approval of the publication of the Council’s Statement of Licensing Principles for the next triennial period 2022 to 2025.

He advised that the Council as a local authority, has strategy functions under the Gambling Act and it therefore had to effectively discharge these.

The report outlined the response to the consultation carried out in respect of the above and made recommendations for revisions to the Statement of Licensing Principles. The proposed amendments were shown highlighted in red within the document at Appendix A to the report.

The proposed review had also taken into account the unprecedented impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on businesses which provided gambling facilities.

Paragraph 3.5 of the report set out the three licensing objectives which were central to regulating gambling and the principles upon which the Council is required to operate in accordance with these.

The Head of Shared Regulatory Services stressed, that the Council did not have responsibility for online gambling. The Council was only responsible for licensed premises based licensable activities and some examples of these, were shown in paragraph 3.3 of the report.

He added that the Council has to publish the Policy, which had to be agreed every three years.

The Head of Shared Regulatory Services advised Members that the Council’s Licensing Committee had previously approved the report and recommended that it then be presented to Council for ratification. The Committee further recommended that Council approves the current set of principles, to take forward for the next three-year period.

Though he made the point that the local authority does not have responsibility for online gambling, this did impact upon our local communities quite significantly, and it therefore integrated with some of the Council’s policies, such as looking after individual’s well-being and/or mental health.

Therefore, he assured Members that local authority officers did engage regularly with the Gambling Commission, Welsh Government and perhaps most importantly, with the Chief Medical Officer, who all recognised how gambling impacts detrimentally upon local communities and were looking at steps to control this.

So, the Head of Shared Regulatory Services concluded, that whilst the Policy could control online gambling, the service was trying to use as many levers as possibly, to protect members of the public out in the community. It was easy through online gambling to lose hundreds of pounds in a matter of minutes, without someone having to leave their living room. Therefore, the challenge to prevent, stop or reduce it, was a difficult one.

As this was the Head of Shared Regulatory Services final Council meeting before retiring, the Mayor together with other Members wished him the very best in his retirement and emphasised what an excellent Officer he had been in looking after the interests of the constituents of three local authorities, which was a challenge in itself that had been made far worse, due to the extra work the service had taken on during the pandemic.

The Leader echoed these sentiments adding that Dave Holland and his colleagues had literally saved 1,000’s of peoples lives during the pandemic through hard work that at times had been overbearing on staff within the service. Members also wished his successor Helen Picton the very best, as his successor.

The Head of Shared Regulatory Services thanked Members for their kind words on behalf of himself and his Officers, who had greatly appreciated the support Members had given them, particularly during the period of Covid-19.

RESOLVED:                              That Council approved the Statement of Licensing Principles, incorporating the amendments highlighted within Appendix A of the report, together with the additional amendment in paragraph 4.6 and to approve publication in accordance with the appropriate regulations.