3. Memorandum from Blackpool
Council (GMB 28)
INTRODUCTION
Blackpool is, perhaps, unique in the UK in the
steps it has taken to;
— study casino gambling in the US—the
regulatory frameworks, codes of practice and social responsibility,
styles of operation, marketing plans and economic and social impacts;
— show how a cluster of destination
casinos will provide the economic driver for comprehensive resort
regeneration and the establishment of a sustainable local economy;
— embody proposals for destination
casino development within a regeneration Masterplan and complementary,
statutory Local Plan;
— encourage open discussion and debate
on casino gambling issues with local business and residential
communities, formally gauge local public opinion, and take a clear
and transparent position;
— engage widely with UK and international
casino operators.
Blackpool Council will allow and, indeed, encourage
resort type, casino development within specific casino sites,
clearly defined in its deposit, Statutory Local Plan. Applications
that comply with the plan, and are supported by responsible environmental,
economic and social impact assessments, and contribute to the
wider regeneration imperative will be approved. There will be
a presumption against other planning applications for new casinos.
Blackpool is proposing a cluster of casinos
within a conference/casino quarter. This brings opportunities
to link gaming to an overall, urban renewal programme—commercially,
culturally and economically and produce powerful cost, business
development, social and regulatory advantages.
THE CALL
FOR CLARITY
AND CERTAINTY
Blackpool has examined and commented upon the
emerging gambling legislation with care and objectivity. It has
looked for a legislative framework that will give the responsible
organisations—the Gambling Commission, Regional Planning
Bodies and local councils—the ability to: work together
to widen consumer choice in a planned and measured fashion; make
choices; steer and guide new investment; and deliver approved
economic objectives and priorities. It has looked for a legislative
framework that delivers certainty and clarity.
THE JOINT
SCRUTINY COMMITTEE
Blackpool Council welcomed the involvement of
the Joint Scrutiny Committee in the legislative review process,
its thoroughness and, in particular, its;
— wish to avoid the social dangers
of proliferation and move forward with caution, in stages.
— willingness to recognise and seek
to capitalise upon the regeneration potential of the larger, destination
casinos
— call for unambiguous casino definitions
and a sensible integration of gambling regulation and the Town
and Country Planning System.
THE GOVERNMENT
RESPONSE OF
JUNE 2004
Blackpool Council was encouraged by the Government
response to the First Report of the Joint Committee and particularly
its decisions to;
— accept the vast majority of the Joint
Committees recommendations
— adopt a cautious approach
— propose a categorisation of casinos
that introduces clear blue water between regional casinos and
other casinos
— favour a UK casino landscape characterised
by few large rather than many small casinos offering access to
unlimited prize machines
— adopt a plan led emphases, reflecting
each regions strategic policies and priorities.
BLACKPOOL COUNCIL'S
POSITION
The decision to reconvene the Joint Committee
and give further consideration to casino regulation and the role
of regional planning bodies is also welcomed by Blackpool. This
is a very necessary and timely step in the drafting process. Detailed
study of the main report and annex, prepared jointly by DCMS and
ODPM, raises a major fear that the emerging legislative framework
is incomplete and will have unintended and fundamentally unwelcome
consequences. There is still much to do.
Blackpool Council is not convinced that the
legislative framework will:
1. succeed in achieving the Government's
strategy set out in pages 30 and 31 of the June 2004 response,
which is to; direct regional casinos to the most suitable areas;
give rise to a relatively low number of regional casinos; bring
about a gradual development in the casino market.
2. arm the responsible bodies with both the
means and the obligation to respond positively to the call made
by minister, Keith Hill—"to promote economic growth,
development and regeneration in the right places" ensure
that, "casinos as part of large tourism development make
a significant contribution to the local economy especially in
areas that depend on tourism and need regeneration", see
"Regional Planning Bodies help give such areas a boost through
tourism-led regeneration"
3. enable tourism based economies like Blackpool
to realise their regeneration ambitions.
Blackpool Council's concern is influenced by;
knowledge of developer activity; the planning policy vacuum at
national and regional level; opportunities to circumvent the planning
system; ambiguities relating to the size and form of regional
casinos, the casino licensing process and its relationship to
the planning system; and uncertainty relating to the Government's
commitment to the regeneration of tourism areas.
THE PLANNING
POLICY VACUUM
Government expects regional casinos to be low
in number. It has also proposed that the regeneration benefit
should be captured through the planning system, which will steer
regional casinos to the most suitable areas and obtain contributions
to wider regeneration through planning obligations.
The steering role has been devolved to the Regional
Spatial Strategies and Local Development Plans, which will become
Development Plan Frameworks. The negotiation role relating to
planning obligations will fall on the local planning authorities—the
unitary and district councils.
In circumstances where:
— development may be limited to, perhaps,
15-25 regional casinos across the UK;
— Regional Spatial Strategies and compliant
Development Plan Frameworks do not yet exist and there is impatience
in the market;
— intense, short lived competition
between operators and between councils is inevitable;
— operator preferences relating to
location will not always coincide with regeneration preferences
or priorities.
It is essential that the planning system has
the ability to react quickly and consistently, cast its net over
all regional casino proposals, and deliver robust decisions that
will create certainty and confidence in the market.
NATIONAL GUIDANCE
This will not be achieved without clearer guidance
from Government to Regional Planning Bodies on the priorities
they should express in their region specific, casino policies.
This guidance could usefully:
1. recognise that Regional Planning Bodies
will need to make choices and in this respect have regard to need,
opportunity and impact.
2. define regeneration and take a stronger
position on securing regeneration priorities (in defining regeneration
there is a need to demonstrate that decisions will create genuine
and sustainable social and economic regeneration benefits and
not simply create jobs and lead to distortions in the market.)
3. express in this guidance, priorities that
reflect the pronouncements made by Keith Hill and other ministers
relating to tourism economies in need of regeneration where alternative
economic drivers are unavailable.
Emerging Government guidance, (annex, paragraphs
17,18), requires Regional Spatial Strategies to establish the
locational criteria appropriate to regionally or sub-regionally
significant leisure uses or to identify the broad location of
major leisure developments. Regional Spatial Strategies will not
succeed in delivering the desired regeneration benefits, and creating
certainty and confidence in the market if they seek to guide regional
casino investment in this way.
SPECIFICITY
If there is a serious desire within Government
to direct regional casino development to the most appropriate
areas, secure regeneration benefits, and give the market the certainty
it desires, then there is an obvious need for specificity. Government
guidance provides for specificity in RSS and Government could
usefully inform regional planning bodies that regional casino
development could be directed to specific rather than broad locations
by:
1. defining regional casinos as exceptional
development (in circumstance where there may only be 15 in the
UK, 4-5 in London and 1-3 per region then this is surely an exceptional
form of development);
2. defining appropriate inward investment
sites for regional casino development.
3. This guidance could also usefully advise
regional planning bodies of the need to secure appropriate levels
of casino development by assessing the need and impact of casino
development on a regional basis in a formal way as part of the
policy making process. (This is not a complex task. The major
players in the casino industry have their own views about potential
casino numbers nationally and regionally based on familiar desk
top capacity studies, examining demographics, accessibility, socio-economic
profile and potential participation rates. Publication of objective
based assessments and strategic policies at regional level will
help to describe the big picture and lead to national consistency).
In circumstances where the will be relatively
low numbers of regional casinos the plan led approach will succeed
only if it is given an opportunity to inform every development
decision that precedes a premises licence for a regional casino.
There is a danger that this will not be the
case. There is a concern that planning permissions granted for
casinos above 5,000 square meters in advance of the act, many
in areas allocated for town centre, or leisure or mixed uses,
where there is no requirement for call-in or referral to the minister,
will obtain a premises licence for a regional casino under the
transition arrangements. The potential for change of use within
the existing D2 Use Class to casino use, without any reference
to the planning system is also a major concern. This potential
has been accentuated by the regional casino definition. Operators
will be able to site 40 tables, 1,000 machines, other gaming activity
and the required non-gambling areas within a gross floor space
of around 6,000 square meters. This volume of space is present
in many existing D2 premises. Operators will also be able to expand
small casinos into adjoining D2 leisure uses without reference
to the planning system and to grow small casinos into regional
scale casinos through the premises licensing process. The compulsion
to do so and avoid the otherwise attendant planning obligations
will be great.
REMOVING AMBIGUITIES,
PLUGGING THE
HOLES
If Government is to give the regional planning
bodies and local councils a genuine opportunity to direct regional
casinos to the most appropriate areas and obtain regeneration
benefits then it must seek to address the ambiguities and plug
the holes. Government could do so effectively by:
1. Placing regional casinos within a sui
generis use class. (The successful regional casino will be
a 24/7 operation, accommodating 3,500 to 5,000 customers per day,
Monday to Friday, 14,000 to 20,000 customers per day Saturday
and Sunday, more than 3.0 million customers per year. Comparative
figures for small casinos are, 300-400 customers per day Monday
to Friday, 400-600 customers per day Saturday and Sunday, less
than 200,000 customers per year. The regional casino will clearly
be associated with a scale and pattern of customer flow over each
24 hour period, and associated environmental, economic and social
impacts that differentiates it, in land-use terms, from other
casinos and other D2 uses.)
2. Creating a Regional Casino Premises Licence,
and requiring the licensing authorities to issue such licenses
to premises only where they benefit from an appropriate planning
permission. (This approach is entirely consistent with the June
response which seeks to protect existing interests but does not
confuse this with protecting future hopes of profit. Although
there is a reference to regional casino licences in the June response
DCMS officials have since stated that there is no intention to
create a specific Regional Casino Licence.)
THE SIZE
AND FORM
OF REGIONAL
CASINOS
Parameters defining the size and make-up of
casino properties may not produce the desired casino product or
desired patterns of development. Profit motive, a competitive
market and operator inventiveness and ingenuity will inevitably
produce unexpected development responses.
Blackpool called for clearer, more prescriptive
definitions and differentiation between the largest casinos and
other casinos. It feared that the market would respond to the
draft bill by investing in relatively high numbers of casinos
in the middle category. This would give rise to proliferation
and, inevitably, undermine confidence in destination casino development
and the prospect of resort regeneration. Blackpool advocated two
categories—boutique casinos and resort casinos, separated
by clear blue water.
The June response by Government has delivered
clear blue water and many of the recommendations made by the Joint
Committee. There is:
— differentiation—the ceiling
level for large casinos is set at 150 machines, restricted to
category "B". The entry level for regional casinos is
set at 1,000 machines, with no restriction on category of machine.
— definition—the regional casino
has a 1,250 machine ceiling, a 1:25 table to machine ratio and
a minimum net area of 5,000 square metres.
There is an expectation that the June proposals
will deliver relatively low numbers of large, multi dimensional
casino complexes, providing significant numbers of jobs and other
local regeneration benefits through supply chains and additional
leisure and cultural facilities. If this is to be achieved it
is necessary to anticipate possible operator responses and recognise
that the proposed definitions may not, in their current form,
necessarily encourage this type of investment decision, particularly
where there is no requirement to do so.
Emerging operator proposals and models encompass
a wide range of product types with net floor space ranging from
85% to 30% of gross floor space with interest focusing on casinos
with a gross floor space area of 7,000 to 10,000 square metres.
In the 85% net: 100% gross space ratio, a gross floor space of
7,000 square metres produces a regional casino at the cap level,
which can operate effectively in gaming shed form on two floors
and a fairly modest footprint. Clearly, Government does not envisage
a casino landscape in the UK dominated by this type of property,
perhaps, in unforeseen numbers.
EXPANDING THE
DEFINITION
In a context of slowly emerging RSS and associated
Local Development Frameworks specifying the form and content of
casino developments, Government could usefully assist casino operators
and planning authorities by;
3. Expanding the definition of regional casino
with a net:gross floor space ratio that more clearly reflects
the Governments intention and firm, more descriptive narrative
guidance on the make-up of the entire casino development.
REGENERATION OF
TOURISM AREAS
The June response has confirmed the Government
intention to guide regional casino development through the formal
statutory planning system. It has referred to National Policy
on Regional Spatial Strategies, Planning for Town Centres and
Transport as the policy references and guiding influences it will
apply in advising Regional Planning Bodies. With this focus the
regeneration emphasis in the recommendations of the Joint Committee
has been diluted and there is, of course, no reference to national
guidance on tourism development and the priority the Government
attaches to the regeneration of tourism economies.
Blackpool clearly feels that Government could
usefully have:
1. Referred to Government Policy on Tourism
and, particularly Tourism Regeneration.
2. Used the Joint Statement to advise Regional
Planning Bodies and casino operators of its intention to see resort
regeneration.
July 2004
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