Agenda item

To receive and consider the attached report of the Chief Officer, Elections and Regulatory

The report of the Chief Officer Elections and Regulatory presented an application for the variation of a Premises Licence (Converted Casino), Grosvenor Casino, Westgate, Wellington Bridge Street, Leeds.

The application had received a representation from an Elected Member.

The following were in attendance for this item:

Mr P Whur – Woods Whur

Mr C Walker – Grosvenor Casino

The legal officer in attendance informed the hearing of the procedures to be followed.

It was reported that Councillors Buckley and Garner had visited the Casino on 3 April 20-19 as part of a site visit to familiarise themselves with the layout of the premises and the area of the premises that the application related to.

Prior to the hearing, the applicant’s representative queried the representation that had been received and whether it met the statutory provisions but informed the sub-committee that they were happy for the hearing to go ahead.

The licensing officer introduced the application.  It was reported that there were three existing licences at the premises and that this application related to the licence for the ground floor of the premises.  It sought to expand the area for gambling by making use of a portion of the existing ground floor smoking area.

The applicant’s representative addressed the sub-committee.  The following was highlighted:

·  The application was part of Grosvenor Casinos plans to make use of smoking areas for gambling.  This had been done at many of their other sites.

·  The application would provide more space for gambling machines whilst maintaining a non-licensed smoking area.  The application was only for a portion of the smoking area.

·  There had not been any representations made by responsible authorities or local residents.

·  The smoking area on the first floor would remain unlicensed albeit this area was part of a separate licence held by the operator, but that there was free flow between the two floors.  There were breakout areas without gambling facilities.

·  This was the first application of its kind submitted by Grosvenor that had received a representation.

·  In other locations, licences had been granted for the entire smoking area.  These had been successfully operated.  The applicant was a responsible operator and there had been no issues in other casinos where similar licences were in operation.

·  The area would be covered by CCTV and there would be regular interaction from senior management.  The operator would increase CCTV in the smoking area if the licence was varied as applied for.

·  The operator proposed to install two gambling machines so smokers could use the facilities while gambling.  If demand required it, they may increase the number of machines in the smoking area to four.

The sub-committee carefully considered the written application, the Report of the Chief Officer Elections and Regulatory, the representations from Councillor Bruce and the oral submissions by the applicant’s representative at the hearing. The committee also took into account Leeds City Council’s Statement of Gambling Policy and the relevant sections of the Gambling Act 2005, as well as the Licensing Objectives.

RESOLVED – That the application be granted on the basis there was a freeflow between the two licences between the ground and first floor which allowed customers to access smoking areas on both floors, one of which would not have any gambling. The sub-committee would hope that in the event Grosvernor Casino Limited were to transfer the licence on the first floor, it would allow for the second smoking area to be utilised still or in the event only the external ground floor smoking area could be available, that consideration would be given to placing an opaque partition which prevents visibility in the external ground floor smoking area between the licenced and non-licenced areas so that it would allow customers who wanted to smoke away from gambling could do so