Agenda and draft minutes

The Chair will draw attention to the emergency evacuation procedure as set out under Note 5.

A Vice-Chair was not required on this occasion at the Committee.

Councillors Ann Morgan, Shaun Hughes, Tim Warren and Sarah Moore had sent their apologies to the Committee.

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

(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 4.4 Appendix 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 Officer or 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 Committee approved these minutes as a correct record.

The Lead Officer (Licensing) introduced the report to the Committee and highlighted the following areas from within it.

The Council currently regulates the number of Hackney Carriage Proprietor (vehicle) Licences the Council issues for the city of Bath. Because of this the Council is under a duty to carry out a review of any significant unmet demand for Hackney Carriage services every three years. This report requests Members to consider the outcome of the Hackney Carriage Unmet Demand Survey (the Survey) carried out by independent consultants in 2023 and, if necessary, make recommendations on the findings to the Cabinet Member.

Currently Hackney Carriages are restricted by zone and numbers within the authority. There are two zones which were set up at the time of local government reorganisation in 1996. Zone 1 has the same boundaries as the former Bath City Council and Zone 2 has the same boundaries as the former Wansdyke District Council (now referred to as North East Somerset). There is no restriction on the number of Hackney Carriages in Zone 2 (North East Somerset).

In 2023 a further Survey was undertaken to see if there was any significant demand that was unmet within Bath. The Survey was initiated in March 2023 and included 178 hours of rank observation, pedestrian surveys and consultation with licensed vehicle drivers and stakeholders.

The main conclusion from the Survey is that there is no unmet demand at this time in Bath City (Zone 1) which is significant and therefore a limit on vehicle numbers can be retained at the present level (125).

Ian Millership, who had conducted the survey on behalf of the Council, addressed the Committee and gave them a presentation. The presentation will be included as an online appendix to these minutes, a summary is set out below.

Aim of the Survey

·  Identify any significant unmet demand (or otherwise).

·  Provide Committee evidence of current position regarding unmet demand and its significance at this point in time.

Definitions

·  Hackney carriages (HCV) - Vehicles that can be taken from a rank, hailed or booked.

·  Private hire vehicles (PHV) - Vehicles that can only be booked, many now use apps allowing much more immediate booking often based on proximity of vehicle.

·  Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles (WAV) - Vehicles that can carry a passenger travelling in their wheel chair – a range of types but all have to be approved locally. Not all ‘London style’ and certainly not all can take every wheelchair. Can exist in either hackney carriage or private hire fleet.

·  Unmet demand – someone arrives at a rank and there is no hackney carriage that could be available for immediate hire. Excludes waiting for vehicle to move up to front of rank (geometric delay).

Fleet / Industry issues

·  PHV numbers reduced strongly in pandemic.

·  Current numbers at 2007 level

·  12% zone 1 HCV are WAV, one WAV HCV zone 2, small number of PHV WAV

·  Strong e-scooter trial in area - 8-9% of their trips formerly licensed vehicles

Rank  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.