Issue - meetings

The Council’s current licensing policies for private hire and taxis were adopted in June 2021 following the formation of BCP Council. There are separate driver, vehicle and operator policies. Since they were implemented there have been changes in best practice guidance and the statutory standards issued by the Department of Transport have been updated.

Whilst there is no statutory requirement to undertake a review of the taxi policies, the current policy review date is 2025.

The focus of the policies is to protect and safeguard children and vulnerable adults, however all passengers will benefit from the standards required of our drivers and operators.

The vehicle policy aims to ensure licenced vehicles are kept maintained and safe so that they do not pose a risk to passengers or other road users.

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

The Committee was advised that the Council’s current licensing policies for private hire and taxis were adopted in June 2021 following the formation of BCP Council and there were separate driver, vehicle and operator policies. Since implementation there had been changes in best practice guidance and the statutory standards issued by the Department of Transport had been updated. There was no statutory requirement to undertake a review of the taxi policies, however, the current policy review date was 2025.

The focus of the policies was to protect and safeguard children and vulnerable adults, however all passengers would benefit from the standards required of BCP drivers and operators. The vehicle policy aimed to ensure licenced vehicles were kept maintained and safe so that they did not pose a risk to passengers or other road users.

Workshops had taken place with members, officers and taxi trade representatives and proposed draft policies had been produced for review and agreement by the Licensing Committee. Once approved, the draft policies would be subject to 8 weeks public consultation. Consultation feedback and any proposed amendments would then be presented to the Licensing Committee in 2025 for consideration of the public responses to the consultation.

The Chair welcomed Mr David Lane, representing the Taxi Trade, to the meeting. Mr Lane read out a short statement thanking councillors and officers for their participation in the workshops and preparing the draft policies. Mr Lane asked that the Committee consider receiving an annual report on the level of complaints where vehicle owners/drivers had failed to accept bookings without good reason in relation to wheelchair-accessible vehicles. Finally, Mr Lane advised that once the policies were approved the taxi trade would be pleased to help promote them and urged all taxi users to use a vehicle licensed by BCP Council.

The Licensing Manager and Licensing Officer then led councillors through the amendments to the ‘Driver Policy’, as detailed in section 17 of the report.

Members discussed section 20.2 and 20.3 in detaill (new guidance and information regarding complaint handling and phased approach taken to enforcement). The Licensing Manager explained that all complaints were considered on their own merits and gave various examples of the different types of complaints received. The Licensing Manager explained that the revised policy had strengthened where operators should forward complaints to the Council and more stringent requirements had been set. All complaints were logged on a case management system and a driver’s history was taken into consideration.

The Licensing Manager advised that a document had been drafted to reflect how complaints were managed and that this could be circulated to committee members for consideration outside the meeting. The document could form part of the Driver Policy if committee members desired.

The Licensing Manager and Licensing Officer then led councillors through the amendments to the ‘Operator’s  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25