Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Guildhall, Bath. View directions

Contact: Mark Durnford  01225 394458

Items
No. Item

95.

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 advised the meeting of the procedure.

96.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND SUBSTITUTIONS

Minutes:

There were none.

97.

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. 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.

Minutes:

There were none.

98.

TO ANNOUNCE ANY URGENT BUSINESS AGREED BY THE CHAIR

Minutes:

There was none.

99.

LICENSING PROCEDURE pdf icon PDF 166 KB

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

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chairman explained the procedure to be followed for the meeting and the applicant stated they had read and understood the procedure.

 

100.

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. They RESOLVED that the public should 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.

101.

Application to Renew Combined Hackney Carriage/Private Hire Drivers Licence - Consideration of Fit and Proper - 22/00233/TAXI pdf icon PDF 121 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Lead Officer - Licensing presented the report to the Sub-Committee. He explained the timeline for the process between the application being made and the first licence being issued to the applicant. He added that the applicant’s conduct had been good throughout this process with the Licensing department.

 

The members of the Licensing Sub-Committee asked questions of the applicant and he responded accordingly with regard to the process of the application and the conditions that are within the licence.

 

Decision and Reasons

 

Members have had to consider whether or not the applicant is fit and proper to have his combined Hackney Carriage/Private Hire Driver’s licence renewed in the light of the fact that his DBS check has revealed a caution from 2018. In doing so Members took account of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976, Human Rights Act 1998, case law, Council Policy and the applicant’s oral representations.

The applicant explained to members the unusual timeline that had occurred in relation to his application and said that this caused a grey area in his mind, even though he had read the taxi licensing documents at the time. That said, he took full responsibility for failing to report his caution during a very difficult period for him. He indicated that he had read the taxi licensing documents again and they were now clear to him, and he is very aware that he would have to report such a caution in future. He explained to Members that he enjoys taxi driving in Bath, acknowledged his mistake and hopes that this matter can be resolved.

Members noted that there had been no complaints against the applicant since he was first licensed in 2019 and that 4 years had elapsed since the offence for which he was cautioned, and he had therefore been caution free for the period anticipated in the Council Policy. Members noted that the Lead Officer for Licensing spoke favourably in relation how the applicant had handled this matter.  Members did not think that there had been any attempt by the applicant to mislead the licensing authority, in what had been an unusual sequence of events and found him to be genuine and credible in his account.

In all the circumstances Members did not consider the caution impacted the applicant’s fit and proper status to hold a licence and therefore approve the grant of the licence but issue a formal warning as to his future conduct, as the safety of the travelling public is paramount and note that he must comply with the conditions of his licence.