Meeting documents

Taxi and Private Hire Sub Committee
Thursday, 24th September, 2009 6.30 pm

Item	Description	Resolution
Declaration of interests - members are reminded that following the adoption by Council of the new Code of Conduct, any declaration of interest should be made having regard to the new code. In particular, members must make clear the nature of the interest and whether it is 'personal' or 'prejudicial'. The Monitoring Officer would like to remind members that when they are considering whether the following items are exempt information under the relevant paragraph under part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 they must have regard to the public interest test. This means that members must consider, for each item, whether the public interest in maintaining the exemption from disclosure outweighs the public interest in making the item available to the public.
1	ELECTION OF CHAIRMAN	RESOLVED THAT: Councillor R Woodward take the Chair for the meeting.
2	APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE There were no apologies for absence.
3	DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST There were no declarations of interest.
4	EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC	RESOLVED THAT: In pursuance of Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following business on the grounds that it involved the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 7 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Act, and in the circumstances of the matter under consideration, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.
The officers consider that the press and public should be excluded during consideration of the following items in accordance with Section 100(a) of the Local Government Act 1972 as publicity would be likely to result in disclosure of exempt or confidential information.
5	CONSIDERATION OF A HACKNEY CARRIAGE DRIVER'S LICENCE The Licensing Enforcement Officer presented the report which asked Members to determine whether the licence holder was still a fit a proper person to hold a licence. The Legal Advisor explained that as the meeting was being held in confidential session, it would be appropriate to discuss the incident detailed in appendix 2 at this point so that the witness could speak and then leave the meeting. Members agreed. The witness confirmed that it was his signature on the witness statement and then went on to give his account of what occurred on the day of the incident. The taxi driver then gave his account of what occurred on the day of the incident. In response to questions from Members, the witness stated the following: - He had reported the incident to the Police and they had informed him that he needed to speak to the Council. - It was very clear who the witness was, he was wearing an ID badge and the company name was clearly printed on the luminous jacket. - The company he worked for did not clamp cars, they issued parking tickets. At this point the witness left the room for the duration of the meeting. The Licensing Enforcement Officer completed the presentation of the report and circulated a letter in support of the taxi driver from his employer. In response to questions from Members, the Licensing Enforcement Officer stated the following: - The taxi driver was reminded of the dangers of using a mobile phone whilst driving as part of a letter from the Licensing Enforcement Officer as it was normal procedure to do so. - Vehicles were often found to be unfit during inspections especially during spot checks as in this case. - During the interview conducted by the Licensing Enforcement Officer, she was not satisfied that the taxi driver was not using his mobile phone as he had claimed, as in her opinion people would not complain unless they felt it was necessary as the complaint procedure was lengthy. The taxi driver presented his case. He stated that he knew it was wrong to use his mobile phone whilst driving and had a hands free kit installed in his taxi. He stated that the witness was lying about the incident but was unsure as to why. The taxi driver went on to explain his account of what occurred during the incident detailed at appendix 5. He stated that he was using his car radio at the time not a mobile phone. In response to questions from Members, the taxi driver stated the following: - He explained that the driver who witnessed the second incident did not speak to him and did treat him differently to other drivers, so therefore he believed the comments written in the letter from his employer were probably correct. - He was not on duty at the time of the first incident. - He explained he was due to start the NVQ level 3 in Taxi Driving and Customer Care. The Legal Advisor asked the Licensing Enforcement Officer to provide further information on the training course to assist Members with their deliberations. At 7.25pm the Sub Committee adjourned to consider its decision. The meeting reconvened at 8.05pm. (Attachment: 1)Report of the Licensing Enforcement Officer	RESOLVED THAT: The Hackney Carriage Drivers licence be suspended for a period of one month from 1st December 2009, that suspension will not come into force provided that the taxi driver prove to the satisfaction of the Licensing Enforcement Officers that you have satisfactorily completed the Driving Standards Agency Test for Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Drivers. If the taxi driver failed to take the test then his licence would be automatically suspended on 1st December 2009 for one month.

Published on Monday, 5th October, 2009

The meeting closed at 8.12pm.

Attendance Details

Present:

Councillors C Bowley, N Smith and R Woodward.

Officers: Miss C Gale, Mr D Gill and Miss R Levy.

The license holder was in attendance.

A witness was in attendance.