Agenda and minutes

An apology for absence had been received from Councillor C D Huckerby.

Members are requested to declare the existence and nature of any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or other interests, not already on their register of interests, in any item on the agenda and withdraw from the meeting at the appropriate time.

There were no Declarations of Interest.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the General Licensing Committee held on 22 October 2020

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the  Special Meeting held on 3 December 2020.

RESOLVED – that the Minutes of the meetings held on 22 October 2020 and on 3 December 2020 were approved as a true record.

Report of the Solicitor and Deputy Monitoring Officer – K Shillitto

Members were reminded that the Council had adopted a comprehensive Taxi Licensing Policy in 2018. This policy aimed to bring the standards of conduct required for the District’s licensed drivers into line with common standards of conduct, which had been agreed collectively by the Derbyshire taxi licensing authorities.

The report to General Licensing Committee explained that in 2020 the Department of Transport had introduced statutory guidance on standards in taxi licensing.  The Council, along with other licensing authorities, would be expected to adopt the standards, unless there were compelling local reasons why they should not do so.

Members learned that following the publication of the statutory guidance, the Council had carried out a review of the existing Taxi Licensing Policy. This review confirmed that although most of its requirements were already covered by the Policy some minor amendments would be required. The required changes were set out in the Appendix to the report. Members were asked to consider and approve them as the basis for a consultation exercise with the public, taxi trade and other stakeholders.

Committee discussed the report and the proposed minor amendments to the Taxi Licensing Policy. There was a consensus that the policy which the Council had adopted in 2018 had worked well and had incorporated best practice lessons from elsewhere. Members felt that the proposed minor changes to the policy would be sensible and that they should be now go forward for further consultation.

RESOLVED

(1)          That General Licensing Committee supported the proposed changes to the Council’s Taxi Licensing Policy, as adopted in 2018 as the basis for consultation.

(2)          That a consultation exercise be held on the proposed changes to the Taxi Licensing Policy, with the responses received reported back to the Committee.

(3)          That following further consideration of the proposed changes and the responses received from the consultation exercise, the General Licensing Committee be asked to endorse specific amendments to the Taxi Licensing Policy and recommend them to Council for approval. 

To consider any other matter which the Chair of the Committee is of the opinion should be considered as a matter of urgency.

The Chair raised specific issues about the way in which Council vehicles were ‘badged’. The Solicitor and Deputy Monitoring Officer agreed to investigate these issues and how the concerns could be addressed.