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17 July 2006 : Column 93W—continued

Culture, Media and Sport

Art Market

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what action her Department has taken to strengthen the position of London as a global art market. [85364]

Mr. Lammy: My Department sees maintaining the pre-eminent position of London within the global art market as vitally important. Through Arts Council
17 July 2006 : Column 94W
England, we have invested around £480,000 of lottery capital funding into London studio spaces for artists. The Arts Council also supports a number of art fairs, including the Frieze Art Fair which last year attracted 31,497 people, encouraging new buyers for contemporary art and leading to £32 million of sales.

My Department sponsors a number of museums and galleries, a number of which have important contemporary collections. The Arts Council has also stimulated public interest in contemporary art through its Own Art Scheme, which offers interest free loans to open up the market to a wider range of people. Own Art, although primarily focused on the regions, is to be expanded to involve a number of art colleges in London.

Casinos

Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when (a) Ministers and (b) officials have held meetings in the last 12 months with casino operators interested in securing licences under the Gambling Act 2005; where each meeting took place; and what was discussed. [83371]

Mr. Caborn: Under the Gambling Act 2005, local authorities acting in their capacity as licensing authorities will be responsible for issuing the one regional, eight large and eight small new casino licences permitted by the Act. Licensing authorities will be required to run the competitions for these licences in a fair and open way. These competitions are not expected to begin until mid-2007, and the identities of the bidding companies will not be known until then.

DCMS Ministers and officials have met frequently with casino and other companies that may be interested in bidding, and their representative bodies. These meetings have covered all aspects of the implementation of the Gambling Act and wider gambling policy, and are part of our regular and ongoing consultation with the gambling industry, local authorities and other stakeholders. Those meetings that have been identified that have taken place since 1 January 2006 are listed in the following table, and all these meetings took place in the UK.

Date DCMS Minister and/or official(s) present Who attended the meeting

18 January 2006

Richard Caborn

Rank Group

6 February 2006

Official(s)

British Casino Association

7 February 2006

Official(s)

Representatives of the gambling industry, including British Casino Association and Casino Operators' Association

10 February 2006

Official(s)

Rank Group

21 March 2006

Official(s)

British Casino Association

11 April 2006

Official(s)

Representatives of the gambling industry including the British Casino Association

20 April 2006

Official(s)

Overseas casino operators including Ameristar, Kerzner International, MGM Mirage

10 May 2006

Official(s)

British Casino Association

15 May 2006

Official(s)

Representatives of the gambling industry, including British Casino Association and Casino Operators' Association

18 May 2006

Official(s)

Rank Group

23 May 2006

Official(s)

London Clubs International

24 May 2006

Richard Caborn and official(s)

British Casino Association


17 July 2006 : Column 95W

Details of earlier meetings that may be relevant were included in my reply of 20 December 2005, Official Report, columns 2654-6W to the hon. Member for North-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Moss).

One further meeting has been identified, which was inadvertently omitted from my earlier reply: DCMS officials and I met Detlef Kornett, Managing Director of the Anschutz Group in London on 7 July 2003. The minutes of this meeting were published on the DCMS website as part of a response dated 26 July 2005 to a request made under the Freedom of Information Act.

Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what (a) rights of appeal and (b) avenues to reopen decisions are available to those local authorities who have had their applications for a regional casino rejected by the Casino Advisory Panel. [84130]

Mr. Caborn: The process for considering local authority proposals for regional casinos is a matter within the discretion of the Casino Advisory Panel having regard to published criteria and to Government policy. Local authorities have no rights of appeal to the panel. The panel, however, has given interested parties the opportunity to submit further relevant information. The deadline for any such information was 28 June 2006.

Coastal Resorts

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport which coastal resorts in England and Wales received Heritage Lottery grants in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available. [85388]

Mr. Lammy: The Heritage Lottery Fund have awarded the following grants to English coastal resorts (as defined by the British Resorts Association) and Welsh coastal resorts since 1994-95 to 2005-06:


17 July 2006 : Column 96W

17 July 2006 : Column 97W
Region/coastal resort Number of projects Total value (£)

England

East Midlands

Skegness

3

1,232,360

East Midlands total

3

1,232,360

Eastern

Aldeburgh

3

133,842

Clacton-on-Sea

3

501,495

Cromer

4

787,300

Felixstowe

1

25,000

Frinton-on-Sea

1

6,500

Great Yarmouth

13

6,419,375

Hunstanton

1

38,000

Lowestoft

9

4,879,370

Sheringham

6

1,327,340

Southend-on-Sea

4

1,659,300

Southwold

2

308,600

St. Ives

1

67,600

Eastern total

48

16,153,722

North East

12

7,912,350

North Shields

9

1,652,600

Redcar

7

942,124

Saltburn-by-the-Sea

5

1,676,500

South Shields

10

6,074,725

Sunderland

18

15,751,100

Whitley Bay

3

157,680

North East total

64

34,167,079

North West

Blackpool

10

6,063,500

Fleetwood

1

28,300

Grange-over-Sands

8

448,519

Lytham St. Annes

5

168,600

Morecambe

3

177,800

Southport

8

5,552,000

Thornton-Cleveleys

1

49,700

Whitehaven

7

1,386,400

North West total

43

13,874,819

South East

Bexhill-on-Sea

4

3,341,900

Bognor Regis

3

1,802,700

Brighton

27

1,365,862

Broadstairs

1

433,000

Christchurch

2

413,400

Eastbourne

8

2,492,750

Folkestone

5

2,126,618

Hastings

8

4,819,100

Herne Bay

3

1,230,400

Hythe

2

2,581,750

Margate

5

1,954,725

Ramsgate

8

4,034,750

Ryde

6

2,383,500

Sandown

3

2,573,729

Southsea

4

479,465

Ventnor

1

30,000

Whitstable

4

490,625

Worthing

10

2,210,245

South East total

104

32,032,795

South West

Bournemouth

7

3,431,025

Bristol

78

73,601,388

Brixham

4

119,300

Bude

5

85,700

Burnham-on-Sea

1

431,400

Christchurch

2

2,670,000

Clevedon

2

1,221,013

Dartmouth

2

72,000

Dawlish

1

20,400

Exmouth

1

50,000

Falmouth

22

21,017,031

Ilfracombe

3

1,203,000

Lyme Regis

6

492,800

Minehead

6

787,000

Newquay

3

89,000

Paignton

2

71,700

Penzance

23

4,384,812

Poole

9

1,480,700

Sidmouth

3

684,100

St. Ives

2

648,700

Swanage

3

109,600

Teignmouth

1

50,000

Torquay

9

7,530,800

Weston-super-Mare

11

2,042,140

Weymouth

5

2,747,288

South West total

211

125,040,897

Yorkshire and the Humber

Bridlington

4

184,900

Cleethorpes

2

324,000

Filey

3

114,000

Hornsea

3

186,900

Scarborough

16

3,472,500

Whitby

15

7,397,100

Withernsea

1

3,800

Yorkshire and the Humber total

44

11,680,200

England total

517

234,184,872

Wales

Aberystwyth

18

3,892,036

Colwyn Bay

10

914,981

Llandudno

8

1,770,910

Porthcawl

2

102,865

Prestatyn

3

9,357

Rhyl

13

2,733,523

Swansea

68

14,448,580

Tenby

13

1,104,401

Wales total

135

24,976,653


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