Agenda and draft minutes

Venue: Hollybank Room, Public Service Plaza, Civic Centre Road, Havant, Hants PO9 2AX

Contact: Mark Gregory  Democratic Services Officer

Items
No. Item

50.

Apologies

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Hughes and Thomas.

51.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 46 KB

Minutes:

The Minutes of the meeting of the Licensing Committee held on 15 June 2016 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

52.

Matters Arising

Minutes:

There were no matters arising.

53.

Declarations of Interests

To receive and record any declarations of interests from members present in respect of any of the various matters on the agenda for this meeting.

 

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interests.

54.

Chairman's Report

Minutes:

The Chairman reported details of a successful prosecution against a licensed driver for operating an unlicensed vehicle and displaying an expired plate.

55.

Charges for Taxis and Private Hire Licensing pdf icon PDF 87 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report from the licensing officer setting out the proposed charges for taxi and private hire licensing for the financial year 2017/18.

 

The Licensing Officer advised that he would take steps to ensure that the hackney carriage and private hire trades were aware of the proposed changes and of their rights to make representations in relation to these proposals.

 

The Committee agreed in principle to the proposed changes. However concern was expressed that due to some errors in the staffing costs submitted, the proposed changes might not properly reflect the costs to the Council. It was therefore

 

RESOLVED that:

 

(a)             authority be delegated to the Licensing Officer, in consultation with the Chairman, to approve the proposed taxi and private hire licensing for 2017/18 charges for advertising for public comment; and

 

(b)             in the event of no representations being received in response to the advertised charges referred to in (a) above, Full Council be RECOMMENDED to implement the new charges for the financial year commencing 1 April 2017

56.

Hackney Carriage Unmet Demand Survey pdf icon PDF 82 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report from the Licensing Officer outlining the findings of the unmet demand survey for hackney carriages which was conducted in June and July 2016.

 

The survey concluded that there was some evidence of unmet demand at certain times but that there was spare capacity in the hackney carriage fleet to meet this demand without the need to issue additional hackney carriage plates. The Committee was advised that if the Committee was minded to retain the current limit of forty hackney carriages, the Licensing Officer proposed to discuss with the trade ways of improving the hackney carriage service to meet this unmet demand.

 

The Committee discussed the survey and options available to the Council following this survey and voted on all three possible options. The majority of the Committee considered that the current limit should be retained for the next twelve months and that the hackney carriage service be reviewed during this period with the results being reported to this Committee for consideration on whether to increase the number of hackney carriage plates.it was therefore

 

RESOLVED that:

 

(a)             the current limit of forty hackney carriage plates be retained for the next twelve months;

 

(b)             the hackney carriage service be monitored over the next twelve months to identify improvements in the use of the current hackney carriage fleet to meet the unmet demand identified in the 2016 unmet demand survey; and

 

(c)          the Committee reconsider the hackney carriage limit in 2017 in light of the results of the monitoring exercise referred to in (b) above