Agenda and minutes

The Democratic Services Officer read out the procedure.

RESOLVED that a Vice-Chair was not required on this occasion.

Apologies were received from Councillors Gabriel Batt, Chris Watt and Brian Webber.

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting. Members are asked to indicate:

(a) The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

(b) The nature of their interest.

(c) Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest,  (as defined in Part 2, A and B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests)

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officeror a member of his staff before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

There were none.

There was none.

There were none.

The public and exempt minutes of the meeting of 14 November were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The Environmental and Licensing Manager presented the report. He pointed out that the Policy for Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Standards (Appendix A) had already been approved by Cabinet, though the Committee could still comment on it. The Committee was invited to approve the conditions and byelaws applicable to licensed drivers, and the conditions applicable to hackney carriage vehicles, private hire vehicles and private hire operators (Appendices B-E), which had been amended and updated.

The Senior Public Protection Officer drew attention to the summary of key changes to the documents set out in paragraphs 5.1 and 5.2 of the report.

The Chair invited Rob Hollingdale, Chairman of the Bath Taxi Federation to make a statement to the Committee. Mr Hollingdale wondered why the limit for engine size had been set at 1400cc (Appendix C, agenda page 48) and said that he agreed with the proposed ban on the use of satnav and GPS by taxi drivers.

Members considered the Appendices to the report in order.

Appendix A: Policy on Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Standards: Drivers, Vehicles and Operators

It was suggested by two Members that anyone with a second conviction for a sexual offence should be banned from being a taxi driver for life. The Principal Solicitor reminded Members that the policy in Appendix A had already been approved by Cabinet. The recommendation was that the Committee should note the policy, though they could still comment on it. The section on sexual offences was Home Office guidance adopted by the Council. Applicants would be expected not to have a conviction for a sexual offence within the previous five years, and that when there is more than one conviction for a sexual offence a period of ten years should normally elapse before an application is considered. He advised that there was nothing in the policy that would remove the Licensing Sub-Committee’s discretion to refuse a licence if they thought that there was a risk to passengers. However the Licensing Authority could not fetter its discretion by stipulating that no person with two convictions for sexual offences would be granted a licence; each application had to be considered on its merits.

Members were advised that term “fit and proper” was in the legislation and could not be further defined by the Licensing Authority.

It was proposed and seconded and RESOLVED to note the policy by 7 votes in favour and 0 against, with 1 abstention.

Appendix B: Private Hire Drivers General Conditions & Hackney Carriage Byelaws

A Member wondered why the conditions applicable to Hackney Carriages were not fully set out. He also thought that the statement that the Council will “expect” Hackney Carriage drivers to advise the Council of convictions, cautions etc. was weak, and that this should be made mandatory. The Senior Public Protection Officer responded that the law did not allow conditions to be attached to Hackney Carriage licences. Bath and North East Somerset issued only combined Hackney Carriage/Private Hire licences and conditions could be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52.

The Environmental and Licensing Manager presented the report. He explained that the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 had introduced a new licensing system for scrap dealers with effect from 1 October 2013. Pending anticipated amendments to the Local Authorities (Functions and Responsibilities) Regulations 2000, the function had been deemed to fall to the Cabinet. It was proposed in the report to the Cabinet that the function should be delegated to officers and to the Licensing Sub-Committee. He explained that the scale of charges set out in paragraph 5.6 had been set on a cost-recovery basis. The present report had been put before the Committee for information only.

It was RESOLVED unanimously to note the report, the proposed fees and the Scrap Metal Dealers Policy provided in Appendix A.