Agenda and minutes

An apology for absence was received from Councillor John Walker.

To confirm the enclosed minutes of the Licensing and Public Safety Committee meeting held on 14 December 2011.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the Licensing and Public Safety Committee meeting held on 14 December 2011 be held as a correct record for signing by the Chair.

No declaration of interest were received.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meetings of the General Licensing Sub Committee held on 11 January and 8 February 2012 be confirmed as a correct record for signing by the Chair.

To consider the enclosed report of the Director of People and Places

The Committee received a report of the Director of People and Places on a review of hackney carriage vehicle licence numbers where the Council intends to continue to regulate the number of available hackney carriage vehicle taxi licences that it issues.

The Council had established a limit to the number of hackney carriage vehicle licences it issues. The current limit stood at 36 hackney carriage vehicle including provision for disabled access vehicles.

Members were informed that the Council are not obliged to maintain a limited number of hackney carriage licences, however were a limit exists, the Council had to be satisfied that there is no significant unmet demand.

To establish if there is any unmet demand, the Council are required to commission a survey to be undertaken every three years and recover the costs.

If Members decided not to commission the unmet demand survey then the Council would be passively removing the limit of hackney carriage vehicle licences that it issues. This would mean that the Council would find it hard to refuse the granting of an application for a hackney carriage vehicle licence without being exposed to a possible legal challenge.

Members were aware that the Law Commission had been appointed to conduct a wholesale review of taxi provision and surrounding legislation, that was due to report back to Government with draft legislation in September, with the implementation of new legislation anticipated in mid 2014. With this in mind, Members sought advice from the officers as to whether it was worth delaying the survey until the outcome of the Law Commission review was known.

It was explained to the Committee that as it was already more than three years since the completion of the last unmet demand survey, the Council would be at risk of challenge.

The Public Protection Officer also explained to Members that although there did seem to be plenty of provision in the town centre area of the town, the unmet demand survey would be in the interests of the whole of the Borough, and would take into account that places like Adlington, Buckshaw and Eccleston had no ranked taxi provision.

The issue had been discussed at the Chorley Licensing Liaison Panel meetings on 31 October 2011 and 13 February 2012, where the hackney carriage trade representatives had expressed their wish to have an unmet demand survey carried out, and were aware that the cost of undertaking such a survey were likely to be recharged through the hackney carriage licence fee.

Quotations to undertake the survey had been obtained by the Council from suitably qualified organisations. A total of four companies had been identified and invited to tender, two quotations had been received and copies were attached to the report for Members information.

Officers had undertaken a basic evaluation of both quotations and determined that the methodologies of the suggested surveys differed, with Halcrow providing a personal observation survey at rank level as opposed to the use of video surveillance by CTS. Whilst both companies  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.LPS.39

The Public Protection Manager will provide Members with a verbal update on performance year to date

The Public Protection Manager reported that the implementation of the new ICT software system had been delayed.