Issue - meetings

During the previous three months two applications for drivers’ licences had been refused by the Appeals and Regulatory Committee.

24 vehicles had failed the six-monthly vehicle test, although it had not been necessary to issue penalty points in any cases, but just three written warnings and two verbal warnings.

There had been a change of company checking DVLA licences for drivers, which had been notified to drivers, as they now needed to register to do this online. The licensing team could provide assistance if required.

It was confirmed that all current drivers had now attended the child sexual exploitation (CSE) awareness sessions and that sessions for new applicants were now being delivered jointly with North East Derbyshire and Bolsover. It had been agreed that school transport escorts could attend these sessions.

During the previous three months two drivers’ licences had been revoked and one driver had been suspended.

19 vehicles had failed the six-monthly vehicle test, although it had only been necessary to issue penalty points in two cases. Trade representatives expressed concern that the reporting of a multi-agency vehicle test operation earlier in October had given a misleading impression that there were problems with the majority of vehicles. The Chair requested that further details of this be provided to enable the situation to be clarified.

The additional staff in the licensing section had now been recruited, providing additional enforcement officer, counter assistant and licensing officer time.

It was noted that there had been some issues relating to the drop-off zone at the Royal Hospital and the Licensing Manager was liaising with the hospital’s Facilities Manager to seek to address these.

Chris Brown referred to an accident which had occurred earlier that day involving a community transport bus working on a school transport contract, which raised concerns relating to the maintenance and servicing of such vehicles and whether the appropriate permits were correctly displayed. It was agreed that this would be further investigated with the Derbyshire County Council Transport Manager and the Office of the Traffic Commissioner in order to seek to ensure public safety.

Ann Dickens expressed concern that private hire vehicles were having to use the car park at the railway station to pick up bookings. It was noted that this was on private land, but Trevor Durham agreed that licensing would continue to monitor.

Trevor Durham reported that work was ongoing to modify the documentation provided for the knowledge tests, but that this had diversified in to making more appointments available. It was intended to tender for a computerised system of written knowledge tests to improve availability of tests for applicants, to remove the subjective element of marking the tests and thereby to speed up the process of applying for a driver’s licence. It was hoped to have the new system in place by April, 2018.

Trade representatives expressed concern at the time taken to apply for a licence. It was explained that currently extra tests were arranged if applicants were waiting more than one month for an appointment to sit the test and that where they failed the test they only needed to resit the failed paper. Applicants were advised to pass their written test before applying for their DBS check as this needed to be no more than one month old when the application was considered.

It was recognised that the documentation about the policy needed to be simplified, but that this needed to be redrafted carefully to ensure it was legally sound.  

Trevor Durham reported that during the past three months one driver licence had been suspended.

22 vehicles had failed the six-monthly vehicle test, although it had only been necessary to issue penalty points in two cases.

Another test purchase operation had taken place in September to identify any private hire vehicles plying for hire, but no offences had been detected.

Trevor Durham reported that during the past three months one driver licence had been revoked and two drivers had been refused application by the Appeals and Regulatory Committee.

A discrepancy had been found on the clocks of some hackney meters and time had been given to rectify the faults. Further checks would be undertaken.

25 vehicles had failed the six-monthly vehicle test, although it had not been necessary to issue any penalty points.

Steve Ashby reported that during the past three months two driver licences had been revoked.

22 vehicles had failed the six-monthly vehicle test, although it had not been necessary to issue any penalty points

The tender for the test station contract had been issued with the deadline for submissions being 21 October, 2016.

It was now possible to accommodate up to eight applicants on each written test.

Informal action had been taken to advise drivers to not turn right out of Elder Way and this would continue to be monitored.

Steve Ashby reported that during the past three months no licences had been suspended or revoked.

35 vehicles had failed the vehicle test, and further action was being considered in four cases.

Positive feedback had been received from drivers attending the training sessions on child sexual exploitation, and it was hoped that further sessions would be arranged shortly.

Consideration was being given to changing the timing of the local knowledge test to daytime and comments on this were invited from trade representatives. Representatives requested that consideration be given to simplifying the test and speeding up the process for obtaining a licence. Elected Members agreed to look at the documentation involved.

The Chair suggested that officers arrange for the Elected Members to visit operators to see some of the practical issues first hand.