Issue - meetings

The Democratic Services Manager will announce any submissions received. The Council will be invited to decide what action it wishes to take, if any, on the matters raised in these submissions. As the questions received and the answers given will be circulated in written form there is no requirement for them to be read out at the meeting. The questions and answers will be published with the draft minutes.

Statements were made by the following people;

Bob Hollindale addressed the Council and referred to a recent Transport for London report on Uber, raising various points of concern.  In response to a question from Councillor Caroline Roberts about whether all Local Authorities follow the same procedure for licensing drivers, Bob responded that they did not and explained that B&NES required enhanced DBS checks, but that individuals who have been refused a badge in B&NES, could obtain one in another Authority area with less rigorous requirements and then operate in B&NES.

Geoff Seymour, a taxi driver in Bath since 2003, made a statement to Council outlining his view that Uber did not effectively support disabled customers.  A copy of Geoff’s statement has been placed on the Minute book and is linked to the online minutes.  Councillor Caroline Roberts asked Geoff if he had heard that Uber would not carry blind people with guide dogs, to which Geoff responded that he had indeed heard that.  Councillor Liz Hardman asked Geoff about future taxi provision for disabled people in the area, to which Geoff responded that, if Uber took all the trade then it would be very limited.  Councillor Colin Blackburn asked Geoff to clarify the point in the second paragraph of his statement stating that it wasn’t possible to contact Uber, as he had experience of doing so and there was choice about which vehicle to select. Geoff replied that he had meant that you can’t contact an operator.

Darth Speed made a statement against Uber, stressing a number of safety concerns.  Councillor Caroline Roberts referred to Darth’s comment about the area being swamped with drivers from elsewhere and asked if that meant there weren’t enough drivers here.  Darth replied that that wasn’t the case as the existing licensed drivers were left waiting for business.

Paul Roles made a statement against Uber, highlighting a number of concerns and examples of alleged illegal practices.  He countered the term ‘non-contentious’ in the context of issuing the Uber licence and described a series of errors in the accompanying report.  Councillor Caroline Roberts asked Paul to explain the term ‘greyball’ to which Paul responded that it was a device that hides a car from detection when it is banned in an area.

Andy Halliday made a statement requesting the Exhibition room at Bath Central Library be re-opened, and setting out a number of reasons to support his request.  A copy of Andy’s statement has been placed on the Minute book and is linked to the online minutes.  In response to a question from Councillor Dine Romero about any indication of when the room might be re-opened, Andy responded that he has recently been told it will be in the autumn.  He added his concern that opportunities for summer activities such as the Summer Reading challenge were being passed up due to lack of space, which could be made available right now.  Councillor John Bull asked if Andy knew the reason for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18