Issue - meetings

On 1 June 2021 the new BCP Taxi and Private Hire Policies for Drivers, Vehicles and Operators were implemented.

These were the first new taxi and private hire policies for BCP Council which replaced the preceding three separate legacy authority arrangements. These policies introduced several new requirements on drivers and vehicle licence holders. This included:-

·       All vehicles will be mechanically inspected every six months, once at a Council testing station and then at any garage for an MoT

·       harmonised livery requirements for new hackney carriages

·       an age limit for all new vehicles

·       an upper age limit for existing licenced vehicles

·       safeguarding training for all licence holders refreshed every three years

·       requirement for drivers to sign up to the DBS update service to allow checks every six months

Since the introduction of these policies feedback and suggested improvements have been provided by the trade and licensing officers.

As a direct result of feedback this report seeks to amend the policies to clarify requirements, remove unnecessary sections and amend inconsistencies.

The Interim Head of Licensing presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'B' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The Committee was reminded that the new BCP Taxi and Private Hire Policies for Drivers, Vehicles and Operators were implemented on 1 June 2021. Since the introduction of these policies, feedback and suggested improvements had been provided by the trade and licensing officers. As a direct result of this, the Committee was asked to consider some minor amendments to the policies to clarify requirements, remove unnecessary sections and amend inconsistencies.

The Chair invited members to ask questions and make comments, focussing in particular on the suggested changes highlighted in the policy documents. Unless specified below, these suggested changes were agreed. Additional matters raised included:

VEHICLE POLICY:

·       Paragraph 7.6 – The Committee agreed the suggested amendment subject to the removal of the duplicate word ‘first’, to read ‘from the date of first registration’.

·       Paragraph 7.11 – The Committee asked that ‘and seat belts’ be added to this requirement, to be consistent with other references in the document.

·       Paragraph 7.14 – The Committee asked that the wording of this requirement be amended to be grammatically correct.

·       Paragraph 8.4 – The Committee agreed the suggested amendment, subject to amending the word ‘checked’ to ‘rechecked’.

·       Paragraph 9.4 – The Committee did not agree to the Trade’s request that the date for licensed vehicles meeting Euro 6 emission standards be put back to December 2024 to be in line with the respray deadline. While appreciating the points made about costs, Members agreed this needed to be progressed in accordance with published timescales.

·       Paragraph 16.6 – The Committee agreed the suggested amendment.

In the discussion there were differing views on whether this requirement constituted a business restriction on the licence holder or whether the licence should be returned to the Council as licence ‘owner’ to reissue.

·       Section 17 – The Committee agreed the suggested amendments in relation to livery requirements, subject to the addition of the word ‘either’ before Christchurch and replacement of the word ‘Eurostyle’ with ‘Eurostile’ in Paragraph 17.1.

There was a discussion on the requirements for the new livery and it was acknowledged that unfortunately there would always be individual cases which fell just outside the timescales.

·       Paragraph 22.1 – The Committee asked that the reference to ‘shall be’ be amended to ‘must be’.

It was confirmed that private hire vehicles were not required to have meter, but those that did had to provide a form of receipt.

·       Section 27 – The Committee asked that the numbering in this section be checked and amended as required.

·       Appendix D – It was noted that the highlighted text had been carried over from a previous version as an anomaly and should be amended.

In addition to the above, the Committee considered the following points raised in the debate:

Tinted Windows – Paragraph 7.7 of the policy

The Committee agreed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26