Issue - meetings

To consider the content of the Licensing Committee report appended as it relates to hackney carriage vehicle quantity controls; and to make recommendations to the Cabinet Member for Safer & Stronger Communities in relation to hackney carriage vehicle quantity controls.

The Committee considered a report from the Head of Community Services and the Solicitor on hackney carriage vehicles quantity controls.

On 7^th March 2011 the Licensing Committee considered a report relating to a review of the hackney carriage service. As part of this review consideration was given to the issue of quantity restrictions in relation to hackney carriage vehicles.

Cheshire East inherited a number of different policies and procedures from their legacy authorities. The review of the hackney carriage service was carried out so that the Council could consider the production of a single policy and procedures to manage the hackney carriage service more effectively. Whilst the council would be able to maintain three separate zones each with the same policies and procedures, it was suggested that there are a number of benefits to operating a single zone in Cheshire East. Currently hackney carriage vehicles were only able to pick up fares in the zone they were licensed in. with three separate zones this could cause issues for drivers moving between zones as they would have to return to their own zone before being able to pick up a new fare. It was suggested that these cases were an inefficient use of a driver’s time and had additional environmental impacts as hackney carriages moved between zones without any passengers. A single zone in Cheshire East would allow drivers from all three current zones to pick up passengers anywhere in Cheshire East.

The Chairman of the Licensing Committee was present and highlighted the importance of the consumer when considering licensing functions.

In order to harmonize to a single zone and have a single arrangement across the whole of Cheshire East the Council would need a consistent policy on limiting the number of hackney carriage vehicle licenses. Currently zone 1 (Congleton zone) had quantity restrictions on the number of licenses that could be issued in the zone. Zones 2 and 3 (Crewe & Nantwich, and Macclesfield respectively) were unlimited in the number of licenses that could be issued. It was noted that in cases where a limit is imposed unmet demand surveys are required to ensure that the number of licenses issuable was meeting the demand of the zone. There was no need to conduct unmet demand surveys with delimited zones. To change the arrangements in a zone would require consultation with both the trade and the public.

The Head of Community Services had no definitive indication of how much consultation of de-limiting in zone 1 would cost but advised that any such consultation would be as wide as possible to ensure that the views of the public were covered sufficiently. Once any consultation had been carried out the Licensing Committee would make recommendations based on the findings.

RESOLVED: That the Cabinet Member for Safer and Stronger Communities be informed that this Committee are in favour of the harmonization to a single hackney carriage zone from the three zones currently licensed within the Borough and to facilitate this the Committee recommend that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 145