Agenda and minutes

Venue: Microsoft Teams

Contact: Sarah Sellers  Democratic Services Officer

Items
No. Item

20.

Chairs Welcome

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed the Committee members, public speaker and officers to the virtual Licensing Committee meeting being held via Microsoft Teams.  The Chair explained that the meeting was being live streamed on the Council’s YouTube channel to enable members of the public to observe the committee.

21.

Apologies

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Gareth Prosser.

22.

Declarations of Interest

To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and / or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests.

 

Minutes:

There were no declaration of interest.

23.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 320 KB

To confirm as a true record the minutes of the Licensing Committee held on Monday 9th November 2020.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that

 

The Minutes of the Licensing Committee meeting held on 9th November 2020 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

24.

Public Speaking

Minutes:

Mr Imran Altaf, on behalf of the Redditch Taxi Association, addressed the committee under the Council’s Public Speaking Rules and commented on the report at agenda item 6. 

 

 

25.

Draft Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy - Approval to Commence Consultation pdf icon PDF 231 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Members considered a report relating to a new draft hackney carriage and private hire licensing policy which officers were proposing should be consulted upon.

 

The Senior Practitioner (Licensing), Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS), presented the report and in doing so referred Members back to the report that they had received at the previous meeting in November 2020 regarding the “Statutory Taxi and Private Hire Standards” published by the Department for Transport in July 2020.

 

Since the November 2020 meeting, officers had reviewed the existing policies for taxis in light of the new statutory standards, and Members were referred to new draft Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy (“the draft policy”) at Appendix 2 of the report.

 

The draft policy incorporated any recommendations from the statutory standards that were not already being met, and it was hoped that the exercise of updating policies could result in some harmonisation of policies across the six districts in Worcestershire.

 

Officers highlighted some specific parts of the draft policy as follows:-

 

·       Adoption of the Department of Transport’s recommended guidelines for the assessment of previous convictions.

·       Provisions preventing the granting of a licence to any individual appearing on the children or adult barred lists maintained by the Disclosure and Barring Service.

·       Provisions for referrals to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service of individuals subject to refusal or revocation on grounds relating to risk of harm to a child or vulnerable adult.

·       Use of the national register of taxi and private hire driver vehicle licence refusals and revocations (known as “NR3”) to check details of new applicants and report information on decisions to refuse or revoke a driver licence.

·       Requirements for applicants to complete safeguarding training and demonstrate proficiency in the English language.

·       More robust checks for operators of private hire vehicles around record keeping and criminality checks on staff.

 

Officers explained that they would be introducing a system for new applicants to obtain a “Worcestershire Taxi and Private Hire Competency Certificate” which was hoped would be a joint initiative across all 6 districts in the county.  Applicants would be assessed as to skills, knowledge and understanding in areas including safeguarding and English language proficiency.  Inquiries were being made by WRS to identify a suitable training provider.

 

In addition to updating the draft policy to cover generic issues applicable to all Councils, some provisions specific to Redditch had been included to reflect a number of issues Members had considered at recent meetings and decided to consult upon.

Display of livery on licensed vehicles

 

Although this issue had previously been considered by the committee in January 2020, consultation had been delayed due to the pandemic.  In summary the new requirements, if adopted, would require the display of approved signage issued by the Council on the outside of the front driver and passenger doors when the vehicle was in use as a hackney carriage or private hire vehicle.

 

Requirement for licensed drivers to demonstrate their medical fitness

 

Members were referred to the previous decision made in September  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

26.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 97 KB

Minutes:

Members were referred to the Work Programme at page 143 of the agenda and officers outlined the items due to be considered at the next three meetings of the committee.

 

RESOLVED that

 

The Licensing Committee Work Programme 2021/22 be noted.