Agenda and minutes

You are welcome to use welsh at the meeting a minimum notice period of 3 working days is required should you wish to do so.  A simultaneous translation will be provided if requested.

It was noted that no requests had been received for the simultaneous translation service.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Mandy Moore, G. Thomas and D. Wilkshire.

To receive

There were no declarations of interest or dispensations reported.

To consider the report of the Team Manager Licensing & Commercial.

Consideration was given to the report of the Team Manager Licensing.

The Team Manager Licensing and Commercial advised that the report outlined the work of the Licensing Team for the third quarter from 1^st October to 31^st December, 2019 in respect of statutory licensing duties. The Team Manager spoke to the report and outlined the key points in relation to the Operational Report and Management Report.

The Team Manager Licensing and Commercial referred Members to the date for the implementation of the minimum pricing unit which had now been confirmed as 2^nd March, 2020. The Team Manager also mentioned the Gambling Support Services Project Pilot in Blaenau Gwent and noted that Blaenau Gwent would be one of the first authorities to engage in the exploration of the take up of training and would work with ARA and CAB to develop a Social Media Toolkit. The toolkit would be used to improve general public awareness of gambling related support services and it was planned to roll out training to frontline staff in a supporting role.

The Chair thanked the Team Manager for the informative overview of the report and invited questions from Members at this juncture.

A Member referred to the ‘Dine in for One or Two’ meal offers in supermarkets and asked if the cost of wine in these packages would also be affected by the minimum pricing as it would increase the cost of wine.

The Team Manager Licensing and Commercial advised that Trading Standards was leading the Minimum Pricing processes and agreed to take this question back in order for this to be taken into consideration.

In response to a question raised in relation to the large increase in the number of temporary licences it was advised that the increased numbers had been due to the Rugby World Cup.

The Team Manager – Licensing and Commercial advised that discussions had been undertaken around the frequency of the Activities Report. It had been agreed that Quarter 4 would be presented as agreed, however the reports would then be presented on a 6 Monthly basis. The Team Manager added that any matters of significant importance would be reported separately to Committee to keep Members infirmed accordingly.

RESOLVED that the report be accepted and the Committee noted the activity report for this quarter.