Issue - meetings

To consider the consultation responses received and to determine the fees to be charged by the Council in relation to the licensing of hackney carriage and private hire vehicles, drivers and operators.

Consideration was given to a report on the responses to the consultation exercise on fees and charges and the Committee was requested to determine the fees to be charged by the Council in relation to the licensing of hackney carriage and private hire vehicles, drivers and operators. 

Further to the information contained in the agenda reports two additional items of information were circulated at the meeting.  The first was a schedule of comments/objections relating to the harmonising exercise, submitted on behalf of the taxi drivers, and the second was a breakdown of the costs used to calculate the base budget for licensing costs. 

In order to be able to properly assess the fees proposed, the basis of which was the reasonable recovery of the cost to the Council of the issue and administration of the grant of hackney carriage/private hire drivers licences, the Committee requested clarification of how the figures used to calculate the base budget for licensing costs had been calculated.  The Committee was informed that due to the difficulties arising from comparing three different accounting systems a more detailed analysis would need to be carried out in order to provide this information.

It was, therefore, requested that a decision on this matter be deferred for a period of one month in order to allow time for the additional financial information requested by the Committee to be prepared, and that appropriate arrangements be made for a meeting of the Committee to be held at that time.  It was noted that any licences that became due for renewal in the intervening period would be renewed at the existing rates.

RESOLVED - that a decision on the fees to be charged by Cheshire East Council in relation to the licensing of hackney carriage vehicles and drivers and private hire vehicles, drivers and operators be deferred, and that a further report be considered at a meeting of the Committee in approximately one month’s time.