Agenda item

The applicant confirmed that he understood the procedure to be followed for the hearing.

The Senior Public Protection Officer presented the report. The applicant’s vehicle, a Peugeot 508, was licensed by the Authority as a Private Hire vehicle from 25^th November 2016 until 31^st October 2018. The applicant applied for a new licence for this vehicle on 14^th November 2018, at which date the vehicle was 6 years and 6 months old. The Council’s current policy provides “that all vehicles will normally be less than five years old when first licensed” and that applications for a licence for vehicles older than this will be referred to the Licensing Sub-Committee. All Private Hire Vehicle licenses in the Authority’s area expire on the 31^st October each year. Renewal letters were sent to all Private Hire licensees in the first week of September 2018 inviting them to renew their license before the expiry date. The applicant arranged a number of appointments to renew the licence, but these were subsequently cancelled by the applicant. The deadline of 31^st October had passed, so that this application has to be treated as a new application. According to information on the GOV.UK Check MoT website the applicant’s vehicle was first presented for a test on 29^th October 2018 and had failed. The vehicle was not available for inspection because of the absence of parking space on account of the Christmas Market.

The applicant stated his case. He stated that the vehicle had failed the MoT the first time because of a faulty engine light. The requirement for cars to have engine lights had only been recently introduced. Bath MoT do not have specific expertise in Peugeots and advised him to go to a Peugeot dealer, which he did.  The dealer gave him the error codes for the problem, but he decided to have the work by a colleague in Bristol. This colleague had completed all the necessary work, but had been unable to reset the engine light, which remained on. He went back to the Peugeot dealer, who downloaded and installed updated software for the car, which is a top-of-the range Peugeot and a diesel hybrid. He had emailed Licensing every time that he had had to rearrange an appointment. Delays had been caused by taking the car to his colleague in Bristol and having the software installed.

The Senior Public Protection Officer advised that the applicant’s vehicle had been tested at Bath MoT on 1^st November 2018 and that the applicant now held a MoT certificate for the vehicle.

Replying to a question from the Chair he explained that he had had to rearrange his appointment with Licensing five times and each time had sent an email explaining the reasons for the delay.

Following an adjournment the Sub-Committee RESOLVED that the applicant’s vehicle was suitable to be licensed as a private hire vehicle.

Decision and reasons

Members have had to determine an application for a Private Hire Vehicle Licence. In doing so they took account of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976, Human Rights Act 1998, the Council’s Policy and the applicant’s oral representations.

The applicant stated that for the first time since its purchase the vehicle failed its MOT which was due to expire on 1 November 2018. The failure was due to an engine light and this took some time to resolve in part due to a software update. In all this took 5 appointments and as a result the renewal deadline passed. The applicant stated licencing were informed throughout and appointments were cancelled in a timely manner.

Members did not have the benefit of an inspection given parking restrictions. Members nevertheless reminded themselves of the legal framework and Council’s Private Hire Vehicle Licence general conditions. These state vehicles must be suitable in type, size and design for use as a private hire vehicle and furthermore safe, comfortable and less than 5 years old when first licensed. 

Members noted the vehicle was licensed until 31 October 2018 and the renewal date was missed due a number of appointments having to be rescheduled. Given the time lapse since the vehicle licences expired and its renewal Members found the vehicle continued to be suitable in type, size and design. Accordingly, authority is delegated to the licensing officer to issue the licence subject to all necessary certification being provided.