Agenda item

Report of the Director of Economic Growth

The Director of Economic Growth submitted a report (previously circulated) to invite Members of this General Licensing Committee to approve the draft of the Council’s revised policy document in respect of Hackney Carriages and Private Hire vehicles, their drivers and Operators, due to take effect from 1 January 2021; and to seek Members approval for public consultation on the Council’s Taxi Licensing Policy last approved on 1 January 2016.

The proposed changes to the current Taxi Licensing Policy and the draft of the Policy were appended to the submitted report.

The submitted report advised that the revised Policy reflected changes to licensing and other legislation and included the latest government and profession body guidelines; and to introduce and reinforce measures to ensure the protection of the general public, in particular children and vulnerable adults and to provide an enforcement framework that takes account of legislative changes and amendments whilst providing encouragement and support to the taxi trade in the Borough.

It was reported that at the time of writing the report Darlington Council had 175 licensed Hackney Carriage vehicles and 103 licensed private hire vehicles, of those 13 were wheelchair accessible; also 164 hackney carriage drivers, 167 private hire drivers and 109 combined hackney carriage and private hire licensed drivers and 3 private hire operators.

Members were advised that following approval of the draft policy a consultation exercise will be undertaken with Licence holders and other stakeholders including Council Members; Durham Constabulary; Immigration Enforcement; Durham Fire Authority; Darlington Association on Disability (DAD); Highways; Environmental Health; Trading Standards; Planning; Public Health; Darlington Safeguarding Partnership; Home to School Transport Section; other local transport providers; and the North East Strategic Licensing Group (NESLG) of which all Tees Valley Local Authorities were members of.

The submitted report also outlined the proposed changes to the Policy in relation to subscription to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) update service; the NR3 register; Disability Awareness Training; Insurance ‘write offs’; the colour specified for hackney carriage vehicles; age restrictions and emissions; on-line application and payments; reduction of the processing time for applications; CCTV; tinted windows; previous convictions; advertising on vehicles; and spare wheels.

General discussion ensued on the draft Policy and the proposed changes and the Licensing Manager answered Members questions thereon.  Members welcomed the proposals and made particular reference to paragraph 57 of the draft policy to include applicant’s to communicate in ‘clear’ English; questioned the availability of charging points for electric vehicles; proposed that all Class N vehicles undergo diagnostic checks and that there be a time limit on replacing a wheel that has undergone repair by sealant; suggested that they would like to see CCTV in all vehicle cabins in the future; and expressed their concerns at the replacement of the historic ‘Notifiable Occupation’ scheme by ‘Common Law Police Disclosures’.

The Licensing Manager confirmed with Members that there will be some minor amended to be made to the draft Policy as a result of the statutory Taxi and Driver Hire Standards.

RESOLVED – That the General Licensing Committee approve the draft of the Taxi Licensing Policy for public consultation, taking into account the Statutory Taxi and Driver Hire Standards, to be applied to all Licences from 1 January 2021.