Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were receive from Councillors Batley, Bence, Cooper, Madeley and Patel.

The Chair drew the Committee’s attention to an error that had resulted in the incorrect start time for this meeting being published on the Council’s Website and Agenda.  The start time stated 9.30am instead of the 10.00am start time agreed by this Committee at its meeting on 23 June 2023.

To deal with this situation he referred members to Part 5 Rules of Procedure (Meetings) Section 2 – Committee Procedure Rules of the Council’s Constitution.  Rule 13.11 – Motions which may be moved during debate, allow for a motion to be moved to adjourn a meeting.

The Chair moved to adjourn the meeting for a period of 30 minutes until the agreed start time of 10.00am.  The adjournment of the meeting until 10.00am was proposed by Councillor McDougall and seconded by Councillor Hayward.

          The Committee

                     RESOLVED

                     To adjourn the start time of the Licensing Committee for a period of 30 minutes until  10.00am.

Members and Officers are reminded to make any declarations of pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial interests that they may have in relation to items on this agenda and are reminded that they should re-declare their interest before consideration of the item or as soon as the interest becomes apparent.

Members and officers should make their declaration by stating :

a) the item they have the interest in

b) whether it is a pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial

c) the nature of the interest

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 21 June 2023  and to note the Minutes from the meetings of the Licensing Sub-Committee held on 23 June, 10 July, 14 August and 15 September 2023.

The Minutes of the previous meeting held on 23 June 2023 were approved by the Committee and signed by the Chair.  The Minutes of the Licensing Sub-Committee held on 23 June 2023, 10 July 2023, 14 August 2023 and 15 September 2023 were noted by the Committee.

There were no urgent items.

To receive questions from the public (for a period of up to 15 minutes).

There were no public questions.

This report sets out the performance of the Key Performance indicators at Quarter 2 for the period 1 April 2023 to 30 September 2023.

The Group Head of Technical Services invited the Committee to make comment on the report.

          The Committee noted the report.

To seek adoption of the revised Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy.

The Chair thanked the Environmental Health Team for all the work that had gone into producing the Taxi Policy and Byelaws report. 

The Environmental Health Team Manager was then invited by the Chair to present the report. The report sought adoption of a revised Hackney Carriage/Private Licensing Policy following the approval of the Committee, at its meeting on 9 September 2022, to carry out a six-week public consultation period.  The proposals included the Introduction of a vehicle age limit, emissions standards, requirements for CCTV and other minor amendments and updates.  He referred to the resolution also made by the Committee that the byelaws should be updated with minor amendments and advertised.  However,   most of the minor changes to the byelaws have been incorporated into the  draft policy and can be implemented as part of the licensing conditions instead of a byelaw. The public consultation had taken place during September and October 2022 and had specifically been brought to the attention of the taxi trade. 

Details of the responses were provided at appendix 3 of the report.  Of the 122 responses, 78 stated they were not in support of mandatory CCTV.  Following the responses received, whilst there were significant public safety and crime prevention benefits, given the concerns raised it was not proposed to proceed with its introduction at this stage.  Instead officers will carry out further consultation and research, with greater engagement with residents to ensure a balanced view.  A further report will then be brought to the Committee with the findings and a draft CCTV policy if it is proposed to proceed.  Concerns were also raised about the proposed vehicle emission and age criteria and following the concerns raised, the proposals had been amended.   The changes, set out in paragraph 3.11 of the report, related to the maximum age limit for licensed a vehicle and the requirement for vehicles to be Ultra Low Emission Vehicle emission from 1 April 2030. 

The recommendations were proposed by Councillor Worne and seconded by Councillor Goodheart.

The Chair invited members to make comment or ask questions

During the discussion members were understanding of some of the concerns expressed by the taxi trade in relation to the proposed introduction of CCTV, which may be expensive to implement. However, it was important that measures were in place to protect both drivers and members of public.  The Committee expressed their support for further public consultation to be carried out to get a balanced view.  A member asked about restrictions on vehicle engine size and if officers had given consideration to that and also about encouraging a greater take up of electric or hybrid vehicles?  The Environmental Health Team Manager responded that engines sizes had not specifically been looked into, but the ultra-low emission requirements would likely impact the maximum engine size.  Officers undertook to include fee incentives for electric and hybrid vehicles, which would be included in the Fee Setting report to be considered by the Committee at its next meeting on 23 February 2024.  A  ...  view the full minutes text for item 488.

The work programme for the municipal year 2023/24 is attached for members review and comment.

The Committee noted the Work Programme.