Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Early Intervention and Support (enclosed)

The Director of Early Intervention and Support submitted a report advising Members of the Licensing and Public Safety Committee to review the quantity control policy that currently limits the number of Hackney Carriage Vehicle licences the Council issues.

The Council currently has a Policy limiting the number of Hackney Carriage Vehicle licences it issues to 36; this includes provision for 9 Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles (WAV). The Council is not obliged to maintain a limited number of Hackney Carriage Vehicle licences. The Council may determine that the maintenance of the limit is not in the public interest in serving the transport needs of the borough and does not provide an adequate level of service for residents and visitors to the area.

Members were advised that where a limit exists and the Council wish to maintain that limit, the Council must be satisfied that there is no significant unmet demand.

CTS Traffic and Transportation Consultants were appointed for the purpose of undertaking a survey to determine whether or not there was any significant unmet demand for the services of Hackney Carriage Vehicles within the Borough of Chorley and to assess the Public interest in the provision of Hackney Carriage Vehicles within the Borough. In the interest of efficiency a cohesive approach was taken between the Council and CTS which extended to assimilating the questionnaires of the unmet demand survey and of the public interest survey; this enabled a more concise approach to the interpretation of the results that have been evaluated impartially by CTS.

It was noted to Members that the majority of existing WAV Hackney Carriage Licenses were first granted in approximately 2007, following the recommendation of a significant unmet demand report considered at that time, which recommended the issue of 7 WAV HC licenses. Since statistics were available, nine WAV have been added to the fleet. In a similar time period 20 per cent extra hackney carriages have been added to by 90 per cent more private hire vehicles. Market forces have not added further WAV to either fleet, and in fact have recently seen the general accessibility of the WAV in the fleet reduce. The estimated 2015 weekly usage of hackney carriages in Chorley was 3,122 passengers, an increase of 12 per cent since the last survey.

The council survey found a third of people said they had used an out of town vehicle in Chorley. It was clear that hackney carriages were clearly visible and known to people, just not used; part of this was potentially due to the perceived cost. The impact and influx of such vehicles was reportedly having a detrimental effect on the trading capabilities of the Private Hire and Hackney Carriage Trade in Chorley; this was placing further burdens on officers in relation to enforcement. However, there is no legislative power available to prevent this activity taking place.

The Licensing Enforcement Officer highlighted the challenges of cross-border risks and the ‘Uber effect’ which had the potential to influence customer decisions to use out of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52