Agenda item

The Principal Licencing Officer, Worcester Regulatory Services (WRS), presented the report to Members. The purpose of the report was to seek members approval for a short, targeted consultation to amend wording of the licencing policy which had an unintended effect on some drivers during their licence renewal.

The updated licencing policy which came into effect on 1^st September 2022 changed the policy regarding insurance write off vehicles falling under categories ‘C’ and ‘S’, in that they would no longer be licenced under the policy.

The intention of the change was to prevent future new vehicles being licenced if they had been written off under categories ‘C’ and ‘S’. However, an unintended side effect of this change was that whenever a vehicle which had previously been licenced and was a category ‘C’ or ‘S’ write off came up for its annual renewal, it was no longer within policy and therefore needed to come before Members to approve.

Officers accepted that this was not the intended purpose of the policy change and sought Members approval to undertake a short, targeted consultation with the intent of changing the wording to allow those vehicles which had previously been licenced to continue to be licenced. Officers further clarified that the current position of preventing new vehicles being licenced would be retained within the policy.

Officers drew Members attention to the proposed wording on page 103 of the Public Reports Pack.

Officers confirmed that should Members agree to undertake consultation, the results would be presented to the next Committee on 27^th November 2023 and should Members agree to the amendment, the change could be made immediately.

The following was clarified after questions from Members.

• That the consultation would consist of a brief background explanation and the proposed changes with the question whether they (the consultee) agree to amend the policy in that way.
• That there had been a significant number of vehicles that had come to a Sub-Committee and all had been approved, however, in the Officers opinion it was an unnecessary disruption and worry for the drivers and was a poor use of Officer and Members time.
• Officers explained that although the change would, in theory, allow a driver to continue to use their vehicle if it was written off whilst licenced, in practice this was highly unlikely as the majority of drivers would take the insurance money and purchase a new vehicle so as to not have a disruption in their work whilst the vehicle was being repaired.

Officers further detailed that WRS would review the situation and would attempt to delay as many determinations as possible until after the next Parent Committee, however, there was a risk for drivers, especially those who work for some companies such as UBER, as some companies may not accept the driver having an expired plate whilst the matter was resolving. Members commented that it was also a poor perception for RBC when Members of the public see an expired plate.

Members agreed that it was an unintended consequence of the change in the policy which intended to phase out write off vehicles and was unfair to drivers who had already had their application approved under the previous policy.

On being put to a vote it was.

RESOLVED that

the Licensing Committee directed Officers to carry out a short, targeted consultation exercise on amending thewording of paragraphs 3.4.4 and 3.5.4 of the Council’s HackneyCarriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy.