Issue - meetings

The Committee received a report from the Environmental Health Manager.

The Council may, as part of its adopted policy on the licensing of Hackney Carriages (HCV), consider whether to apply a limit on the maximum number of HCV licences which it will issue at any time. However, this power may be exercised only if the Council is satisfied that there is no significant demand for the services of HCVs which is unmet (section 16 Transport Act 1985). The Council has no power to limit the number of Private Hire Vehicle (PHV) licences.

In January 2015 members agreed that a Demand Survey should be completed every 3 years in order to review the limit on the number of HCV. This is to ensure the council is satisfied that there is no significant unmet demand for the service.

The most recent Demand Survey was completed in 2017. Within the report produced by the company completing the survey, it was

concluded that there was no significant unmet demand. As a result of these findings, the number limit for HCV remained at 321.

As the Council have a limit in the number of HCV they have within the city, as part of the demand survey process an expression of interest ‘list’ was created for those who wished to hold a HCV, when one become available. This list is currently closed and the council are not currently accepting new expressions of interest.

Since March 2020, 4 plates have become available and offered to those currently on the list. Due to the impact of Covid - 19, those offered plates have been provided with 12 months to licence a new HCV, as opposed to 3 months previously. This extension is in response to Covid-19. There are also a further 9 individuals who remain on this list.

The next Demand Survey was due to be completed in 2020, however this did not take place due to the restrictions in place throughout the Country and the city, in response to the Covid – 19 pandemic.

The Environmental Health Manager, deemed that if a Demand Survey was to be completed under the restrictions in place, the results would not be a true representation of the demand for HCV services.

The above decision was communicated with Committee Members and members of the trade.

Following the above decision not to proceed with the Demand Survey in 2020, the Environmental Health Manager received a request from a member of the trade to stop or freeze the issuing of plates, which have been returned to the council (Appendix A of the Officer’s report).

It was apparent that owing to the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions throughout the country that the taxi trade has been impacted due to decreased demand for the services. As the restrictions ease over the next coming months, demand is likely to increase, however it is

unknown how quickly things will go back to ‘normal’ at this point in time.

In response to Members’ questions the Environmental Health Manager and Environmental Health and Licensing Support Team Leader said the following:

      i.         The report sought to reduce the number of HCV at present.

    ii.         Few electric vehicles currently on the market were wheelchair accessible. It did not seem reasonable to insist on this requirement for a 6 month period.

   iii.         If new licences were extended, electric vehicles that were wheelchair accessible would be encouraged.

  iv.         A demand survey was proposed in 2020 but this was not viable due to covid lockdown, so another demand survey would occur in the next two years. The limit on HCV and policy on ultra-low emission vehicles would be reviewed then.

    v.         Licensing conditions (Green Policy for Taxis) required new saloon cars to be electric from April 2021 2020 (corrected post meeting, but 2021 mentioned in meeting). All vehicles should be electric or ultra-low emission from 2028.

  vi.         Officers were reviewing the specifications on what were viable electric or ultra-low emission vehicles to encourage licensees to use these in the city.

 vii.         Officers were also looking at infrastructure in the city (eg designated charge points for taxis) to get the best performance out of vehicles.

The Committee:

Resolved (unanimously of all present - 7 votes to 0) to approve that council officers put on hold handing out plates returned to the council to the next persons on the Expression list, for the next 6 months.

Councillor Gehring left the committee during the debate.