Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Mark Durnford  01225 394458

Items
No. Item

1.

EMERGENCY EVACUATION PROCEDURE

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

Minutes:

The Democratic Services Officer drew attention to the Emergency Evacuation Procedure.

2.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND SUBSTITUTIONS

Minutes:

There were none.

3.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

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.

 

Minutes:

There were none.

4.

TO ANNOUNCE ANY URGENT BUSINESS AGREED BY THE CHAIR

Minutes:

There was none.

5.

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING: 18th May 2023 pdf icon PDF 422 KB

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee RESOLVED to approve the minutes for the meeting held on 18th May 2023 and they were duly signed by the Chairman.

6.

LICENSING PROCEDURE pdf icon PDF 167 KB

The Chair will, if required, explain the licensing procedure.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The driver that was present confirmed that he had received and understood the licensing procedure.

 

The Chairman referenced the procedure and stated that the driver would be given a fair amount of time to make a statement and give his evidence to the Sub-Committee.

7.

EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC

The Sub-Committee is asked to consider passing the following resolution:

 

“the Sub-Committee having been satisfied that the public interest would be better served by not disclosing relevant information, in accordance with the provisions of Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, RESOLVES that the public shall be excluded from the meeting for the following item(s) of business and the reporting of the meeting be prevented under Section 100A(5A), because of the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended.   

Minutes:

The members of the Sub-Committee agreed that they were satisfied that the public interest would be better served by not disclosing relevant information, in accordance with the provisions of Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972.

 

It was RESOLVED that the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business and the reporting of the meeting be prevented under Section 100A(5A), because of the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraphs 1 and 2 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended.

8.

Consideration of ‘Fit and Proper’ status - 22/00378/TAXI pdf icon PDF 123 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Public Protection Officer (Licensing) introduced the report to the Sub- Committee. He explained that they were being asked to determine whether a driver remains fit and proper to hold a combined Hackney Carriage/Private Hire Drivers licence.

 

He outlined the key points from the report.

 

The driver acknowledged that he fully understood the content of the report.

 

The driver referred to the incident that took place on 6th February 2023 in which he named another person as the driver of the vehicle and explained that this occurred at stressful time when a family member had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and that he was worried that additional points could potentially see him lose his licence. He stated that he would not make this same decision again.

 

The driver referred to the incident that took place on 12th June 2021 and said that this had been an exceptional situation whereby he had become unwell due to food poisoning and had felt unsafe to drive so asked a friend to drive his vehicle home.

 

The driver referred to the previously recorded incident from 9th January 2020, when he was issued a verbal warning by Licensing, having admitted the offence of using a handheld device (mobile phone) whilst driving a vehicle. He said that at the time of the incident his vehicle was stopped at a set of temporary traffic lights and that he was checking on the location of his next fare.

 

The driver assured the Sub-Committee that his vehicle had at all times had an MOT certificate in place and been insured correctly despite not providing the appropriate paperwork to the Licensing team within the stated timescales in 2020.

 

The driver stated that he considers himself good at the work that he does, his vehicle is always in a good condition and that he is always dressed appropriately for his work. He added that he has never had any customer complaints made against him and that he has a number of regular customers.

 

The driver informed the Sub-Committee that no customers were ever present in his vehicle when the speeding offences occurred.

 

The Chairman asked the driver how he could prove to the Sub-Committee that he remains fit and proper to hold his licence.

 

The driver replied that he can’t deny that the previous offences have occurred, but said that he was on the road for around 8 – 10 hours a day. He said that he tries to be as professional as he can and has provided a good service for many years. He stated that he would never drive while under the influence of alcohol or drugs and that he had no other police convictions aside from the matters relating to speeding that had been already raised.

 

The Chairman asked if he had given all the evidence that he had wished to the Sub-Committee.

 

The driver replied that he had.

 

Decision and Reasons

 

Members have had to consider whether the Licensee is a fit and proper person to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.