Agenda item

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

The Director of Public Protection, Streetscene and Community submitted a report advising Members of the Council’s responsibility to review the quantity control policy that currently limits the number of Hackney Carriage Vehicle Licences that the authority issues.

The Council currently has a policy limiting the number of Hackney Carriage Vehicle licences it issues to 36, including provision for 9 wheelchair accessible vehicles.

The Council are not obliged to maintain a limited number of hackney carriage licences and 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.

However, where a limit exists and the Council wishes to maintain that limit, the Council has to be satisfied that there is no significant unmet demand.

Establishing unmet demand can be achieved by way of a survey of the hackney carriage provision within the borough of Chorley, examining by way of a series of observations of taxi rank activity and by issuing direct and in-direct questionnaires to interested parties including the general public. The Council may commission such a survey and recover the costs from the trade.

Should Members decide not to commission the unmet demand survey then the Council would over time lack recent data to justify not delimiting numbers. In this instance the Council would not be in a position to refuse the granting of an application for a hackney carriage vehicle licence without being exposed to possible legal challenge.

Members were informed that the Law Commission has recently conducted a wholesale review of taxi provision and surrounding legislation. Although it was anticipated that the recommendations would have found their way to statute by this time, this was not the case, and as yet, although considered that they would be implemented within this Parliamentary term, local authorities have not been advised on when these recommendations will become legislation.

The results and recommendations to Government have however now been made public and the document titled Taxi and Private Hire Services May 2014 was contained within the report for information. The Committee’s attention was drawn to those chapters which discussed and set out the proposals in relation to Local Authorities ability to limiting the numbers of Hackney Carriage Vehicle’s and Accessibility for all. The Law Commission’s report has been accepted by Government.

Should these provisions become legislation the Council would be obliged to review its policy in relation to limiting the number of HCV licences it will issue, having regard to a public interest only.

As the Law Commission’s report was expected to be implemented within the forthcoming Parliamentary term, the Committee considered that it would be  appropriate at this time to undertake a wider public interest test, to establish the extend of need across all genres of the community and the borough. As advised by officers, this may also include an unmet survey demand but would be dependent on cost.

It was proposed by Councillor Matthew Lynch, seconded by Councillor Gordon France and subsequently unanimously RESOLVED that subject to reasonable costs within the allocated budget, to instruct officers to undertake a process of consultation to determine whether or not a decision to remove the Council’s limit on the number of Hackney Carriage Vehicle licences it will issue is in the public interest. The consultation shall be so designed to examine the current arrangements and consider the removal of:

a)    the numerical limit the Council currently imposes on the number of HCV licences it will issue; or

b)   removal of the numerical limit the Council currently imposes on the number of HCV licences it will issue, and only consider applications for the grant of a Hackney Carriage Vehicle Licence where the vehicle presented is able to meet the requirements of the Council’s Conditions of Application for the Grant of a Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Hackney Carriage Vehicle as detailed in the Councils condition of application, or

c)    to maintain the limited number of HCV licences it will issue.

If the cost of such a survey was higher than the allocated budget, the details would be brought back to the Licensing and Public Safety Committee for a decision.

The results of any consultation undertaken and any recommendations shall be brought back to the Licensing and Public Safety Committee for their consideration.