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Bath & North East Somerset Council | |||
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MEETING: |
Housing and Public Protection Committee |
AGENDA | |
MEETING DATE: |
16 May 2000 |
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REPORT AUTHOR: |
Andrew Jones Environmental Monitoring and Licensing 01225 477557 |
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RESPONSIBLE OFFICER: |
Howard Nowell Head of Environmental and Consumer Services 01225 477502 |
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TITLE: |
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WARD: |
All | ||
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BACKGROUND PAPERS: Report to Housing and Public Protection Committee – Review of Taxi Service within the Bath and North East Somerset Area, September 1999. | |||
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AN OPEN PUBLIC ITEM | |||
1 SUMMARY
1.1 This report is to seek the Committee’s guidance on the number of hackney carriages operating in Zone 1 (Bath).
2 RECOMMENDATION
2.1 That the Committee determine which of the following options is their preferred means of dealing with hackney carriage licensing:-
2.1.1 That the number of hackney carriages operating in Zone 1 be reduced to 88.
2.1.2 A notice is placed in the Bath Chronicle and/or Western Daily Press requesting expressions of interest from those wishing to be granted a hackney carriage vehicle licence and advising interested parties where they can obtain a copy of the current conditions.
An appropriate closing date for those expressions of interest is specified in the notice.
That there is no requirement for the expression of interest to be accompanied by a vehicle registration document or insurance, so as not to cause unnecessary expense to those who are not successful.
Applicants will be issued with a receipt, the number of which would be placed in a draw to be carried out by the Licensing Sub-Committee.
A list of applications received would be available for inspection prior to the draw taking place so as to enable applicants to check that their application has been received and processed by the Council.
3 RESOURCE AND CORPORATE POLICY
3.1 Financial: None arising directly from this report
3.2 Staffing: “
3.3 Equalities: “
3.4 Economic: “
3.5 Environment: “
3.6 Council Wide Impacts: “
4 LEGAL FRAMEWORK
4.1 Bath and North East Somerset Council licences hackney carriages under the provisions of the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 and the Local Government Act (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976, as amended.
4.2 A hackney carriage, in order to be entitled to operate requires a licence granted by the Council under Section 37 of the Town Police Clauses Act 1847. This is known as a hackney carriage proprietors licence or a hackney carriage vehicle licence.
4.3 Section 40 of the 1847 Act requires the proprietor or proprietors to sign a requisition for the licence. The requisition should contain the full name and address of the applicant, together with details of anyone else who is involved in the keeping, employing or letting for hire of the hackney carriage.
4.4 The power to issue licences is discretionary, but the only certain ground on which the licence can be refused is that there is no significant demand which remains unmet.
4.5 By virtue of Section 16 of the Transport Act 1985, the local authority has the power to limit the number of hackney carriages within its area, but only if it is satisfied that there is no significant unmet demand for hackney carriage services. From time to time the Council arranges for an independent survey to be carried out to establish whether or not there is any significant demand which remains unmet.
5 BACKGROUND
5.1 Historically, Bath City Council regulated the number of hackney carriages which could operate within its area. Wansdyke District Council did not regulate the number of licences within its district.
5.2 On the formation of Bath and North East Somerset Council, the issue of regulation was considered and it was resolved that two zones should be created, with the same boundaries as the previous local authorities, and that the hackney carriage licences in Zone 1 would be regulated and Zone 2 would remain de-regulated. This policy was to be reviewed after 2 – 3 years.
5.3 In November 1998, independent consultants were employed to carry out a review of the zoning system, as well as carrying out a survey to establish whether there was any significant demand for hackney carriage services which remained unmet.
5.4 The survey carried out in relation to Zone 1 (Bath) in 1998/99 indicated that there was no significant unmet demand in relation to hackney carriage services.
5.5 In September 1999 a report was put to the Housing and Public Protection Committee entitled “Review of the Taxi Service within the Bath and North East Somerset Area”. This report concluded that the two zone system should remain and that Zone 1 (Bath) should continue to be regulated. It was resolved, at the Committee meeting, to accept the conclusions and recommendations of the report. Interested parties such as potential hackney carriage vehicle operators are thus aware that the Council is likely to refuse any applications for licences for vehicles if the result would be for there to be more than 89 hackney carriage vehicles operating.
5.6 One of the conditions currently attached to hackney carriage vehicle licences is that all hackney carriage plates remain the property of the Council and shall be returned to the Council on expiry or within seven days of any notice of suspension, revocation or refusal to renew the licence. From time to time there is also the possibility that plates may be returned to the Council for some other reason.
5.7 As a result of an invalid requisition having been received on renewal, one of the licences was not renewed and there are now 88 licensed hackney carriages operating in Zone 1.
5.8 Options on how any further hackney carriages might be licensed are limited. Any policy would need to be fair to all applicants. Applicants would need to be aware of the conditions they would need to comply with if their application were to be successful.
5.9 The options available to the Council are as follows:-
5.9.1 That the number of hackney carriages operating in Zone 1 be reduced to 88, on the basis that the Council is satisfied that there is no significant unmet demand with 88 hackney carriages in operation.
5.9.2 A notice is placed in the Bath Chronicle and/or Western Daily Press requesting expressions of interest from those wishing to be granted a hackney carriage vehicle licence and advising interested parties where they can obtain a copy of the current conditions.
An appropriate closing date for those expressions of interest is specified in the notice.
That there is no requirement for the expression of interest to be accompanied by a vehicle registration document or insurance, so as not to cause unnecessary expense to those who are not successful.
Applicants will be issued with a receipt, the number of which would be placed in a draw to be carried out by the Licensing Sub-Committee.
A list of applications received would be available for inspection prior to the draw taking place so as to enable applicants to check that their application has been received and processed by the Council.
In law, the effect of this is that the Council will say to one only of the applicants that they will be granted a licence for a suitable vehicle and that all other applications will be refused. Such refusals would need to be on the basis that, with the additional licensed hackney carriage there is no significant demand for hackney carriage services which remains unmet. Such a view would need to be justified by admissible evidence in the event of an appeal against refusal. Whether this method of selection would withstand judicial or other scrutiny, given the fact that the Council is not obliged to refuse any applications solely on the basis of a quota is open to question.
6 CONSULTATION
6.1 This report has not been presented to the Trade Unions as there are no staffing issues.
dh/mp/reportHackneyLicensing.doc
