Council put at 'serious risk' following decision to grant permit to gambling arcade in Derry city centre

By Alan Healy

Derry's council has been left ‘exposed’ by a recent court judgement which overturned its decision to refuse a permit for a gambling arcade, it has been claimed.

Derry City and Strabane District council had rejected an application from Oasis Retail Services for an amusement permit to open a gaming centre at Unit 23 on Level 2 of the Richmond Centre, which has lain vacant for 16 years.

Local councillors voted unanimously to refuse the permit, resulting in Oasis Retail Services taking the matter to the court of appeal, which saw a number of councillors, including the former Mayor Hilary McClintock, called to explain their reasons for the refusal.

A judge then overturned the council’s refusal on the grounds that the process by which the council had issued the refusal was ‘flawed’, and granted an amusement permit to Oasis.

It also emerged in court that after Oasis’ application was refused, council had issued a renewal for an amusement permit to Star Bingo in Bank Place, which was later revealed to ab

This application did not come before councillors as there were no objections to it, and the matter was dealt with under ‘delegated authority’.

However, concerns have now been raised that court case has left the local council ‘exposed’, and that it had also been ‘placed at serious risk’ by the outcome of the court case.

The claims came at Thursday’s meeting of council’s Audit, Assurance and Risk committee, held in the Guidhall, where the independent councillor Paul Gallagher said that more information should have been made available to councillors called to give evidence at the appeal hearing.

“There was a judgement given at the court last week, which puts the council at serious risk,” he said.

Cllr Gallagher added that the court case, and the information that came to light during the appeal hearing, had left both the council and councillors ‘exposed’.

He also raised concerns over council’s policy of ‘delegated authority’, which was used to grant the permit to Star Bingo, adding that this now needed to be looked at ‘in depth’.

Commenting, the SDLP’s Martin Reilly said that also had concerns and that council now needed to ‘look at the way we operate’, requesting that a report on the issue be brought back to the council’s Health and Community committee.

Meanwhile, the independent councillor Gary Donnelly asked if there could be any further repercussions for council for refusing the application.

The DUP’s Hilary McClintock said that council should wait until it receives the written judgement in the case before it looks at its ‘policy and procedures’, while Sinn Fein’s Eric McGinley added that council could then see if there was a ‘basis for appeal’.