Report by the Public Protection Manager (attached).

The Committee considered a report on Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy Amendments (circulated previously) by the Public Protection manager.

The Public Protection manager introduced Lee Staples, Environmental Health and Licensing Practitioner to the meeting who gave the following update to the Committee:

·         Following the Licensing and Community Safety Committee meeting held on 8 March 2022 a community consultation was run online from 16 March to 11 May 2022 seeking comments on the proposed policy amendments.

·         The responses received were very constructive and were considered very carefully.  Where practicable amendments were formulated because of comments received.

·         The following amendments have been made:

Ø  Vehicle standards in particular were being looked at with the licenced vehicle age criteria (vehicle standards), to better align to the Council’s corporate priority around protecting the environment;

Ø  It was decided not to make CCTV in vehicles mandatory but to clarify the standards for systems that might be installed so had introduced technical specifications and system requirements for any new CCTV systems fitted within licenced vehicles.  Those vehicles who had already had CCTV installed were not being asked to have the system removed;

Ø  Introduction of day-to-day maintenance logging checks undertaken daily and proprietors to keep logs of who was driving and when;

Ø  Removal of sun strip visors on private hire vehicles– which was to be replaced with door signage; and

Ø  Drivers to attend an interview when a complaint was received.  To be undertaken in a timely manner.

·         52 responses were received from the public with some very lengthy comments. 

·         As a result of considering the comments received further changes were made to the amendments of the policy such as:

Ø  Retaining the current upper age limit for plating a new licenced vehicle at 5 years of age as opposed to the 3 years as proposed, but linking this to a requirement for these vehicles to also be Euro 6 emission standard or above; 

Ø  The emphasis would be on the emissions of the vehicle in line with the Corporate environmental priority;

Ø  Cost considerations was the biggest concern amongst drivers completing the survey especially following on from loss of income due to the Covid-19 pandemic and more recently the high inflation costs;

Ø  A draft best practice guide recently released by Central Government indicated that they did not favour an age based policy;

Ø  This was felt to be a proportionate response to the information received;

Ø  Likewise, the proposal to introduce an upper age limit for vehicle renewal was amended to correspond to emission limits as opposed to vehicle age, specifically Euro 6 emissions standard.    To allow for older vehicles currently licenced with the Local Authority a built in delay to updating vehicles to Euro 6 emission standards was being proposed to January 2026, to give those drivers time to purchase newer vehicles;

Ø  Wheelchair accessible vehicles were to be allowed a lower emission standard as it was accepted it was more expensive to buy those types of vehicles and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23

Report by the Public Protection Manager (attached).