Issue - meetings

Review of Taxi Licensing Policy and associated conditions

Meeting: 18/12/2018 - Cabinet (Item 69)

69 Review of Taxi Licensing Policy and associated conditions pdf icon PDF 98 KB

This report seeks to update and amend the policy and general conditions for hackney carriage and private hire drivers, hackney carriage vehicles, private hire vehicles and private hire operators’ licences.

As part of the policy review it is proposed to adopt Section 165-167 of the Equality Act 2010 and maintain a list of designated vehicles which are appropriate for wheel chair access within the licensed vehicle fleet.

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Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Will Sandry made a comment that he was happy with the report though he was concerned about the language used at some Licensing Committee meetings.

 

Councillor Dine Romero expressed her concerns that conditions would not apply to vehicles which were licensed in other authorities.

 

Councillor Bob Goodman introduced the report by saying that the previous policy and conditions adopted by the Council have been updated to align with the proposals on air quality, the need to ensure that all drivers have an awareness of how to respond to concerns about Child Sexual Exploitation and the need to ensure that new applicants are able to effectively communicate with passengers in the interests of public safety.  Following the Equality Act 2010 (Commencement No. 12) Order 2017, it was also recommended that the Council adopts these provisions in the interests of transparency and fairness to both licence holders and wheelchair users.

 

Councillor Bob Goodman moved the recommendations.

 

Councillor Tim Warren seconded the motion.

 

Councillor Mark Shelford supported the report though he felt that taxi drivers should wear some sort of uniform in near future which would, in his view, add value to the service.

 

RESOLVED (unanimously) that the Cabinet agreed to:

 

1)  Note the responses to the public consultation and the officer recommendations;

2)  Adopt the revised hackney carriage and private hire policy following endorsement by the Licensing Committee;

3)  Adopt Section 165-167 of the Equality Act 2010 following endorsement by the Licensing Committee;

4)  Note the amended private hire driver conditions and hackney carriage driver byelaws following amendments proposed by the Licensing Committee;

5)  Note the remaining conditions adopted by the Licensing Committee at the meeting on 17 October 2018.

 

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