Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Griffin.

Councillor Young attended the meeting virtually online. This meant Councillor Young could contribute to debate but could not vote on any of the agenda items.

The minutes of the meeting held on 16 September 2024 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Question 1.

To the Chair of Licensing Committee, you have served as Chair of the Cambridge City Taxi Licensing Committee since May 2022. Could you kindly outline your achievements in this role?

Response to Question 1.

The Licensing Committee was responsible for making decisions on a number of subject matters one of which was taxi licensing. Further details could be found within the Council’s constitution Constitution - Cambridge City Council.

The Licensing Committee made decisions at strategic level usually on Licensing Policy, which flowed from legislation. The Chair of Licensing Committee wasn’t a decision maker themself; the Licensing Committee as a whole made a decision on any report brought before them for that purpose. The role of the Chair was to manage the procedure followed at the Full Licensing meeting.

In terms of Taxi Sub Committees, membership for Sub Committees (which usually comprised 3 members) was drawn from the whole Committee and the Chair for that Sub Committee was determined at each meeting. Councillor McPherson could chair these meetings if the Sub Committee elected him as Chair. Taxi Sub Committees would be held in confidential session due to the nature of the information being discussed.

In terms of achievements, the Full Licensing Committee ensured that the authority complied with its statutory responsibilities to put in place policies etc for the regulatory functions the Council undertook.

Question 2.

To the Chair of Licensing Committee, what are your plans to ensure that public hire vehicles become a sustainable service for the citizens of Cambridge? If you do not have a vision for this, do you believe you are the right person for the role?

Response to Question 2.

It was not a function of the Licensing Committee to provide a taxi service or facilitate businesses to operate sustainably. The Licensing Authority needed to ensure that policies and procedures were put in place to administrate the issuing of taxi licences to protect the safety of the public who may use taxis. The Licensing Authority would also consider and undertake enforcement action where appropriate.

Supplementary Question:

i.               Advised that the question was not about businesses but about the public.

ii.             Believed that the Council had a statutory responsibility to provide a private hire service.

iii.            Believed that the service was not sustainable as 50 stakeholders had gone. Hundreds of taxis drivers had gone and applied for licences from other local authorities.

iv.           The Cambridge City fleet was the smallest fleet of taxis operating in Cambridge City.

v.             Believed the Council had little understanding of the taxi trade and what the Council’s responsibilities were in terms of public hire transport.

vi.           Did not believe that the Council should be proud of their Taxi Licensing Policy as residents had to wait over an hour for a taxi.

vii.          Referred to issues raised in minute reference 25/7/Lic (Garages to carry out taxi testing).

Councillor Moore said she would be happy to meet with the public speaker to discuss the issues raised particularly around the issue of residents waiting over an hour for a taxi.

Councillor Moore also advised that her comments made at a previous meeting (referred to by the public speaker) around being proud of the Council’s Taxi Policy was around the work the Council had done regarding safeguarding, taking complaints seriously and setting high standards to keep residents safe.

In November 2023, the Department for Transport issued the “Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Licensing: Best Practice Guidance for licensing authorities in England”. This guidance led to a review of Cambridge City Council’s Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy being presented to the Licensing Committee in September 2024.

The Committee gave permission for four potential changes to the Policy to be subject to a public consultation. This report brought those four potential changes to the Policy back to the Licensing Committee.

In response to Members’ questions the Environmental Health Manager said the following:

i.               In principle agreement from the Licensing Committee was required for the Council to provide wheelchair accessible training before Officers could look into what the cost of this training might be.

ii.             The Council would look at developing an ‘App’ for recording daily check results. When vehicle inspections were undertaken, Officers would ask to see the daily check records.

iii.            Noted Member’s request to add a sentence to the top of the daily vehicle check that these checks are required to protect the safety of the travelling public and the taxi drivers themselves.

Councillor Bick proposed an amendment to the Officer’s recommendation that officers explored whether all the daily safety checks needed to be undertaken daily or whether some could be carried out monthly.

This amendment was carried unanimously nem con.

The Legal Advisor requested that a vote be taken on the inclusion of a new paragraph 33.7 within the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Policy (as set out in paragraph 2.3 of  the Officer’s report), which clarified the position in regards to licence holders that have had their licences previously suspended, revoked or refused by Cambridge City Council or other Local Authorities that ‘An applicant who has been suspended/refused/revoked by Cambridge City Council or another Local Authority may not be considered “fit and proper” for a period of at least 10 years from the date of the suspension/refusal/revocation. This period may be extended depending on the circumstances. The NR3S register will be consulted for all applications’.

The Committee approved this unanimously.

Resolved (unanimously) to:

i.               Approve the changes made to the Policy as per the tracked changes in Appendix A of the Officer’s report, including:

a.    Introduction of the training of drivers in loading wheelchairs and wheelchair users into Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles.

b.    For drivers to daily safety checks of the licensed vehicle.

c.    Private Hire Vehicles should continue to display operator signs.

d.    Applicants shall hold a full driving license for more than 2 years before applying to be a licensed driver.

ii.             Delegate authority to Officers to explore whether all the daily safety checks needed to be undertaken daily or whether some could be carried out monthly.

iii.            Allow Officers to decide how to introduce and implement driver  training in loading wheelchairs and wheelchair users into Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles.

iv.           Approve that a new paragraph 33.7 be added to the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Policy stating that:

a.    An applicant who has been suspended/refused/revoked by Cambridge City Council or another Local Authority may not be considered “fit and proper” for a period of at least 10 years from the date of the suspension/refusal/revocation. This period may be extended depending on the circumstances. The NR3S register will be consulted for all applications.

The report set out the revised fees and charges for licences and associated items proposed to be set with effect from 1st April 2025.

In response to Members’ questions the Environmental Health Manager said the following:

i.               Fee levels should be set so that the Council recovered the costs associated with processing applications for licences as well as the administration and monitoring of compliance with conditions. The Council was not permitted to make a profit, and fees would be adjusted year to year to maintain the correct balance.

ii.             Officer time incurred in following up incomplete licence applications and investigating complaints against drivers would be factored into service costs and consequently the licence fee levels.

iii.            Would provide the Committee with the spreadsheet which set out the service cost calculations.

iv.           Advised that the taxi trade would be advised about the changes to fees and charges and referred to recommendation ii.  

Resolved (unanimously) to:

i.               Approve the level of the fees and charges with effect from 1st April 2025, as set out in Appendix D of the Officer’s report.

ii.             Request officers communicate changes with members of the public, businesses and taxi trade.

Councillor Moore did not take part in the vote for this agenda item.

The purpose of this report was to review Cambridge City Council’s Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy regarding where licensed vehicles are examined and tested before being issued with a licence and during the life of the licence.

In response to Members’ questions the Environmental Health Manager said the following:

i.               Advised that a garage facility was currently being built at Cowley Road. This was additional to the garage facility at Waterbeach. The Council’s other vehicles would be tested at the Cowley Road facility.

ii.             Noted comments made around the Council having a monopoly for the provision of taxi vehicle testing and advised that the Council’s main focus was public safety and requiring vehicles to be tested by the Council’s garage managed the risk to public safety.

iii.            Using the Council’s garage also meant that officers working within the garage could be given delegated authority to take enforcement action immediately should any vehicles not be up to standard.

iv.           There was a mix across local authorities, some councils required vehicles to be tested at the council’s own garage facility, some councils had a list of approved garages where taxi vehicles could be tested, and some councils allowed vehicles to be tested at any garage.

v.             South Cambs District Council (SCDC) had an approved list of taxi vehicle testing garages. SCDC also only required taxi vehicles to be tested once a year whereas the City Council required vehicles to be tested every 6 months. When the number of non-compliant vehicles was compared between the City Council and SCDC, SCDC had a higher number of non-compliant vehicles.

vi.           Noted that only two garages expressed an interest in providing taxi vehicle testing facilities and one of these garages would not be able to test Tesler vehicles so the vehicles they could test would be limited.

vii.          Agreed to provide a member briefing on this matter in a year’s time.

Resolved (by 5 votes to 0 with 2 abstentions) to:

i.               Approve that each Cambridge City licensed vehicle be examined and tested by the Cambridge City Council examination and testing facilities located within the Cambridge City Boundary. This would come into effect from 1st July 2025. The policy will be amended accordingly.

Cambridge City Council, as the Licensing Authority, is required to discharge its responsibilities under the Gambling Act 2005 with a view to promoting the three licensing objectives, namely;

·      Preventing gambling from being a source of crime or disorder, being associated with crime or disorder or being used to support crime;

·      Ensuring that gambling was conducted in a fair and open way; and

·      Protecting children and other vulnerable persons from being harmed or exploited by gambling.

The Statement of Gambling Policy was required to be reviewed every three years. The Statement of Gambling Policy would be referred to Full Council for final approval.

Resolved (unanimously) to:

i.               Endorse the post-consultation draft Statement of Gambling Principles shown in Appendix A of the Officer’s report and recommended to Full Council that the Statement is approved for publication.