DERRY’S council has been warned that it will ‘run into trouble’ over a new policy relating to the granting of permits for new amusement arcades in the city.
The move comes after a judge overturned a refusal issued by the council for a new gambling arcade in Derry’s city centre.
Newtownabbey-based Oasis Retail Services had lodged an application with Derry City and Strabane District Council for an amusement permit to open a gaming centre at Unit 23 on Level 2 of the Richmond Centre, which was formerly occupied by Dunnes Stores (pictured above).
However, the council refused the permit on a number of grounds, which was then overturned by Judge Elizabeth McCaffrey at the Court of Appeal in Derry in June of last year.
At a recent meeting of council’s Health and Community committee, held at the Guidhall, councillors were presented with a draft new policy on amusement permits.
Seamus Donaghy, Head of Health and Community Wellbeing with the council, said the policy would give ‘great consistency and decision making’ when considering amusement permits.
The new policy sets out fiver criteria for assessing the suitability of a location for a proposed amusement arcade, which are impact on retail vitality and viability of Derry City and Strabane, the ‘cumulative build-up of amusement arcades in a particular location’ and the ‘impact on the image and profile of Derry City and Strabane’.
The remaining criteria are the proximity to residential use and the proximity to schools, youth centres and residential institutions.
Speaking at the meeting, Sinn Fein’s Eric McGinley welcomed the document, adding that it would ‘provide council with a sounder base on which to move forward’.
The DUP’s Hilary McClintock, who was the Mayor at the time Council refused the Oasis permit and was summoned to give evidence at the court appeal, said that it was a ‘useful document’ and a ‘lot of lessons had been learned from what happened in the past’.
However, the independent councillor Paul Gallagher said that he believed the new policy, and the criteria, ‘will not strengthen’ council when it comes to issuing such decisions and that it needed to ‘tighten up the process’ through which such applications area made.
Philip Kingston, Lead Legal Services Officer with the council, said that the new policy would ‘concentrate the minds of the courts’ when considering appeals, adding that it would benefit the council as the court would see that it had a ‘very set procedure that it applied consistently’.
He continued that one of the issues ‘pulled up’ during the Oasis appeal was that council had ‘not applied this consistently’.
Cllr Gallagher added that council would ‘run into trouble down the road’, and that any future business seeking to set up an amusement arcade in the council area could use the previous court judgement ‘against them’.
He continued that council had not carried out an in-depth study into issues such as the cumulative build-up of amusement arcades.
Responding, Mr Kingston said that it would be ‘very difficult to deal with that’ on a case by case basis, before adding that Oasis had also brought successful cases against other councils.
He added that Cllr Gallagher was ‘right’ in that council should have as ‘much information as possible before it’.
Mr Kingston added that the policy is ‘putting their best foot forward’.
The councillors then agreed to approve the commencement of a public consultation exercise with key stakeholders on the draft Amusement Permit Policy.
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