MINEHEAD businessmen Marcus Kravis and Warren Matthews have failed to persuade West Somerset Council to rethink the fees it is planning to charge licensees as a result of the Gambling Act 2005. The pair told Monday's cabinet meeting that entertainment centres such as K's, Electric Avenue and Merlins were already facing tough times and that situation was going to be made worse by the council's plans. Mr Kravis said proposals to charge an annual £850 fee for an adult gaming centre licence and £650 for a family entertainment centre represented 1,000 per cent and 785 per cent increases on the current charges. He said K's would be badly hit as it would effectively be charged twice as it needed both adult and family licences, while Mr Matthews' would also be facing a double whammy at Merlins. Mr Kravis branded the charges as unjustified and urged the council to wait until it knew the costs involved in implementing the act before setting fees which were solely meant to cover costs. He said: "Unfortunately, no-one knows what extent the council will be involved in enforcement of any licence, but the suggested fees are a further kick in the mouth to an industry that is already struggling on so many fronts. "We do not expect the council to issue us licences for free, but struggle to see how even looking at the worse case scenario that a family entertainment centre or adult gaming centre is going to involve a bigger licensing cost than the pub trade." Mr Kravis calculated that his Electric Avenue centre would be paying nearly three times more in annual licensing costs than the Wellington Hotel, while K's and Merlins faced footing bills five times larger than those incurred by the hotel. "The application fees are now rising by amounts that we cannot see are justified when the largest pub or nightclub would only pay £635, yet a small adult gaming centre over £1,000 more. "If the cabinet feels that it cannot defer then it should be brought in line with the pub premises licences. "This can then be reviewed once everybody knows what the fee will cover," Mr Kravis said. Mr Matthews added: "All we want is a level playing field. This is just another expense." Both men said they understood that the council's hands were tied by Government legislation, but said the authority had some discretion over the level of fees it charged. Ian Timms, customer standards zone co-ordinator, said the authority had to ensure the fees covered the cost of issuing licences and that the charges suggested in West Somerset were standard across the county. "We will need to review these as there are a lot of uncertainties concerning the Act. "We can always make refunds on fees and can look at this again after six months," Mr Timms said. Cllr Ann Foxhuntley said the council had no choice but to introduce a new fee structure and added: "It's very much a case of suck it and see." Mr Timms assured the committee the fees had not been "plucked out of the air" but had been calculated using a recognised formula. "We're not here to make money on this, it's here to cover our costs," finance portfolio holder Cllr Roger Webber said. But both Cllrs Keith Ross and Eddie May voiced concerns about the level of charges. "We're killing people off because we're being greedy," Cllr May warned. Cabinet members agreed to approve the new fees, subject to them being reviewed after six months to ensure they were set at an appropriate level.
