Agenda item

The Committee received a report from the Environment Health Manager regarding the review and update of the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Vehicle Policy in relation to the Electric Taxi Vehicle Policy.

The Committee made the following comments in response to the report:

     i.        South Cambridgeshire District Council had moved their Electric Taxi Vehicle Policy implementation date to December 2021 on the basis of consultation responses and queried whether the City Council could do the same.

    ii.        Disagreed with the recommendation in the report and could not see why the council should move away from its adopted policy. Referred to large scale demonstrations which had taken place on climate change. The Council itself had declared a Climate Emergency. Noted that only certain electric cars had been included within the officer’s report and queried why some electric cars had not been included within the officer’s report.

   iii.        Was swayed by the comments made by Petersfield residents.

  iv.        Was not convinced by the arguments put forward by the taxi trade.  The committee had made a decision last year regarding the policy and the policy should not be changed.

   v.        Noted the points made by both the taxi trade and residents. The taxi trade had problems with the slow diagnostics at Garages and the lack of replacement vehicles if there was an insurance claim. However the health of children and the arguments made by residents was more persuasive.

  vi.        Air quality concerns were taken seriously, would comment that issues arose due to the design of the area (at Great Northern Road / Tenison Road) and this was not in the control of the Licensing Committee.

 vii.        Buses needed to be looked at in relation to their impacts on air quality.

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

     i.        6 monthly checks were carried out on vehicles, if vehicles degraded this should be flagged during these checks.

    ii.        New taxi vehicles undergo certain checks to ensure the vehicle is compliant with taxi vehicle conditions. Officers would also check the vehicles V5 document.

   iii.        Vehicles could be re-sprayed to ensure that they met taxi colour conditions (ie: taxi vehicles were silver with a green stripe).

The Committee:

Unanimously rejected officer recommendations 2.2 and 2.3:

    i.       To change the implementation date for “all new Licensed Saloon Vehicles to be Zero or Ultra-Low Emission” from 1 April 2020 to 1 April 2021. The final date of 2028 will remain in place.

  ii.       However, if the vehicle manufacturing market has not improved over the next 12 months to give delegated authority the  Environmental Health Manager to review the above recommendation in consultation with the Chair of Licensing Committee

Unanimously approved officer recommendation 2.4:

 iii.       The removal of the 4 year maximum age limit for new licensed vehicles, which are Zero Emission and Ultra Low emissions (less than 75g/km of CO2)