Agenda and minutes

To confirm the minutes of the Licensing and Public Safety Committee meeting held on 23 July (enclosed)

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the Licensing and Public Safety Committee held on 23 July 2014 be confirmed as a correct record for signing by the Chair.

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any pecuniary interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda.

If you have a pecuniary interest you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter.

No declarations of any interests were received.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the General Licensing Sub Committee’s held on 23 July, 17 September, 30 September, 5 November, 19 November, 17 December 2014, 26 January and 4 February 2015 be agreed as a correct record.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the Licensing Act 2003 Sub Committee’s held on 9 December 2014, 9 December and 26 January 2015 be agreed as a correct record for signing by the Chair.

Report of the Director of Public Protection, Street Scene and Community (enclosed)

The Director of Public Protection, Street Scene and Community submitted a report to advise Members of a review that had recently been undertaken of the taxi licensing administrative processes and sought approval for the implementation of new policy and processes for the administration of Taxi Licences, with delegated authority to the Director of Public Protection, Street Scene and Community to make appropriate amendments to the application forms and processes should the need become evident during their implementation.

It had been agreed at the last meeting of the Licensing and Public Safety Committee held on 23 July 2014 that officers would undertake a review of the Taxi licensing processes. There had been a number of cases brought before the Sub-Committee and the Chair for consideration, where it had been identified that a change in process or procedure could have avoided such issues. The matters were also discussed at the Licensing Liaison Panel.

Offices had considered all the process undertaken with regard to taxi licensing functions and identified a number of proposals to streamline existing procedures, including changes to forms, administration and processing of licences and some policy changes that would better align the expiry dates of medicals, DBS disclosures and taxi tests with licence expiry.

It was considered that these changes would reduce the likelihood and necessity for enforcement relating to such anomalies, proposals sought to avoid these issue occurring and better direct resources in proactive campaigns and partnership working.

The proposed changes would also assist in addressing concerns raised by the trade with regard to waiting times, repeat visits and lack of expertise in the one stop shop, which is a criticism that had been raised at a number of Licensing Liaison Panel.

Draft application forms, checklists and guidance notes were appended to the report to assist members and the trade to visualise the way processes are proposed to be administered in the future. The documents were still to be tested by the transactional team and therefore may be subject to some minor variation and amendment as required. The forms have been designed to ensure that the requirements for each licence are clear and enable customer service staff to process the applications more efficiently. It should also reduce the number of queries that need to be passed to the back office for clarification and confirmation which was also another concern that had been raised by the trade as a cause of frustration and delay.

Members thought that the question relating to attending a Speed Awareness Course should be moved to another section of the form as attendance on such a course was not deemed to be a declaration of a conviction, caution or pending prosecution. However, the information was still appropriate for the Council to ask for when considering if they were a fit and proper person.

The Council had extensively consulted with the trade throughout the review and had taken their view and thoughts into consideration as much as was possible.

The Regulatory Services Manager and Lead Licensing and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.LPS.5

Report of the Director of Public Protection, Street Scene and Community (enclosed)

The Committee received a report of the Public Protection, Street Scene and Community advising Members of the Council’s policy to review quantity control every three years where the Council intend to continue to limit the number of available hackney carriage vehicle licences it uses.

The Council has established a limit to the number of hackney carriage vehicle licences it issues. This currently stands at 36 hackney carriage vehicle licences including provision for disabled access vehicles, of which there are 9 currently licenced.

The Council is not obliged to maintain a limited number of hackney carriage vehicle licences, however where a limit exits, the Council has to be satisfied that there is no significant unmet demand.

A Department for Transport Circular 3/85 provides guidance on the restriction of the power of licensing authorities to limit the number of hackney carriage vehicles, stating that district councils may wish to review their policy on the control of hackney carriage numbers as limitation of numbers can have many undesirable effects as an insufficiency of taxis, either generally or at particular times or in particular places, insufficient competition between the providers of taxi services to the detriment of their customers and prices of the transfer of taxi licences from one person to another which imply an artificial restriction of supply.

Members were asked to consider different options that included whether to undertake a scoping exercise in accordance with the Council’s Contract Procedure rules to identify and appoint an appropriate consultant to undertake an unmet demand survey, instructing officers to provide a report for the Committee that considered the Council’s position on maintaining limited Hackney Carriage vehicle licence numbers or removing the limit.

After careful consideration of the information contained within the report, it was proposed by Councillor Adrian Lowe, seconded by Councillor Anthony Gee and subsequently RESOLVED to instruct the Director of Public Protection, Street Scene and Community to undertake a scoping exercise to identify appropriate consultants to undertake an unmet demand survey following a procurement exercise under the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules, and also include in this report, the Council’s position on maintaining limited Hackney Carriage vehicle Licence numbers or removing this limit.

The Committee thanked the Chair Councillor Marion Lowe for her work and support on Licensing and extended their best wishes for her Mayoral role next year.