Agenda and minutes

To move “That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act".

No declarations of interest were received.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Bellamy, Neil Rayner and David Stone.

The Licensing Manager submitted a report for Members to consider proposed amendments to the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy, with the aim of improving public safety.

The Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy had been implemented from April 2011 and revised in May 2012.

Further amendments to the policy had become necessary and these had been subject to widespread debate plus a formal period of consultation between 1 and 31 July 2014. All drivers and operators had been written to, the matters had been available for debate at the Taxi Consultative Committee and had been discussed at the Enterprise and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee.

The proposed changes were highlighted on the draft policy document attached as Appendix A to the report, covering the following issues:

·        Operators to be allowed to advertise their own services on their vehicles, such as vacancies for drivers. (Paragraph 2.8.2.2 of the Policy)

·        Renewal applications to be accompanied by the vehicle V5 document. (Paragraph 2.18.4)

·        Wheelchair accessibility (paragraph 3.4.2-5) -   all drivers to obtain one of the following qualifications if they are to drive a wheelchair accessible vehicle:

          a) DSA wheelchair exercise;

b) An appropriate NVQ, such as:

·        City & Guilds NVQ level 2, unit 228, Road Passenger Vehicle Driving (Taxi and Private Hire) (7439); or

·        PerasonEdexcel NVQ level 2, Road Passenger Vehicle Driving (Taxi and Private Hire) (QCF) module A/602/6061; or

·        An equivalent NVQ from another provider.

c) Modules B1 and B2 of the Passenger Assistant Training Scheme (PATS).  

Drivers to be given a period of six months to produce evidence they have obtained the qualification.

·        Suspension and revocation - decisions to suspend or revoke to be made by authorised officers in consultation with the chair or vice-chair of he Appeals and Regulatory committee. (Paragraph 4.2.2) 

·        Length of insurance policy - the minimum length of an insurance policy to be 6 months. (Paragraph 7.4)

·        Test failures - for the purpose of penalty points, the policy to apply if a vehicle is presented for test within 28 days of the previous licence having expired. (Paragraph 15.7)

·        Appeals against penalty points to be referred to the Environmental Health Manager instead of the head of service, reflecting recent organisational changes. (Paragraph 3.6 of Schedule 3)

·        The number of penalty points for smoking in a licensed vehicle to be reduced from 6 to 3. (Schedule 3, Appendix 4)   

·        The use of e-cigarettes [e-cigs] in licensed vehicles to be prohibited. (Schedule 4)

·        The Guidance document to be updated to reflect the agreed changes. (Schedule 5)

Responses to the consultation, which related to the proposal regarding the length of an insurance policy, were attached as Appendix B to the report, including a letter from Robinson Murphy Solicitors, acting on behalf of Collingwood Insurance Company Ltd.

Mr N Robinson of Robinson Murphy Solicitors, addressed the meeting in respect of the proposed minimum length of an insurance policy. He explained that many drivers used short-term insurance policies (weekly or monthly) to enable them to manage their cash flow, and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 80.