Agenda and minutes

Any apologies for absence that have been received will be noted at this point.

Apologies were received from Mr Evans, Miss Lishman, Mr Moss and Mr Page.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the General Licensing Committee meeting held on 10 February 2021.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting held on 10 February 2021 be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Chairman to announce any urgent items which due to special circumstances are to be dealt with under agenda item 7b.

There were no urgent items.

Details of members’ personal interests arising from their membership of parish councils or West Sussex County Council or from their being Chichester District Council or West Sussex County Council appointees to outside organisations or members of outside bodies or from being employees of such organisations or bodies.

Such interests are hereby disclosed by each member in respect of agenda items where the Council or outside body concerned has been consulted in respect of that particular item or application.

Declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests, personal interests and prejudicial interests are to be made by members of the Committee in respect of matters on the agenda or this meeting.

There were no declarations of interests.

Questions submitted by members of the public in writing by noon on the previous working day (for a period of up to 15 minutes).

There were no public questions.

That the revised proposed Hackney Carriage (Taxi) and Private Hire Licensing Policy 2021 at Appendix C be approved, subject to any further amendments made by the General Licensing Committee.

The Committee considered the above report (copy attached to the official Minutes). 

Mr Knowles-Ley introduced the report and outlined the key points.  He reminded members that a draft Hackney Carriage and Private hire Policy and Conditions was presented to the Committee at its last meeting held on 10 February 2021.  The public consultation exercise had taken place with 13 written responses being received, all attached and shown in full at Appendix A.  All responses have been carefully considered by Officers and each individual response has then been summarised on the ‘Register and Summary of Responses’ provided at Appendix B.  The proposed amendments to the Policy were highlighted by track changes, set out in Appendix C of the supplement agenda. 

In particular members’ attention was drawn to Section 14 - Medical Fitness/D4 medical Examination and Section 20 – Vehicle Specification, Age, Appearance and Environmental Impact. 

With respect to Section 14, Mr Knowles-Ley advised that the proposal is to increase the age from which holders of a Private Hire or Hackney Carriage Driver’s Licence require an annual Group 2 medical from 60 to 65 and to also increase the frequency for Group 2 medicals for anyone under 65 from 4 to 5 years. He explained that these changes would make us consistent with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency’s existing requirements for licensed lorry and bus drivers. Whilst it is proposed to slightly relax the requirements around medicals, it is proposed within the policy that a Medical Practitioner can direct that a Group 2 medical should be carried out more frequently at any age where deemed necessary in their professional opinion.

Mr Knowles-Ley advised that with respect to Section 20, that it is still intended to proceed with the proposed 10 year age policy, however it is now proposed to include an exemption in respect of any fully electric vehicle from the policy in order to encourage more electric vehicles onto the licensed fleet.

Mr Knowles-Ley advised that whilst reviewing the draft policy during the consultation period, officers have also made some further suggested amendments. These relate to Section 20 and Sections 20.3 through to 20.6 of the proposed policy. They include a proposal to refuse any vehicle which appears to have been ‘illegally altered’, for example this would include vehicles where the recorded mileage appears to have decreased without reasonable explanation. To increase the minimum amount of tread for tyres on a Private Hire vehicle from 1.6mm to 2.0mm which is consistent with the current requirement for Hackney Carriage Vehicles, setting a requirement for glazing in Private Hire Vehicles which is again consistent with licensed Hackney Carriage vehicles, prohibiting the use of trailers, roof boxes or roof bars without the express consent of the Licensing Authority and setting out the need to ensure that when changing the vehicle registration mark of a licensed vehicle that it is undertaken in a controlled manner in conjunction with the Licensing Authority.

The final proposed change to the policy which Mr Knowles-Ley made reference to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47.

(a)  Items added to the agenda papers and made available for public inspection;

(b)  Items which the chairman has agreed should be taken as matters of urgency by reason of special circumstances to be reported at the meeting.

There were no late items.