Agenda item

Report of the Director of Planning and Development attached.

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Planning and Development that provided feedback on the consultation carried out in response to the intended policy amendments, with regards to the recent request from South Ribble Borough Council (SRBC) licensed operators for a single use/restricted private hire licence (PVH ) to be available.

The Licensing Manager explained that a request had received in December by an SRBC operator for a single use/ restricted PVH licence to be available. The request had been received from an operator which solely performed school contract work with drivers working predominantly outside of the borough not requiring any local knowledge of the area.

A consultation exercise had been undertaken with three proposals, and 42 responses were received in support of option one. The Licensing Manager explained that 39 of those responses were received from Drivers who exclusively work for an operator who only performs private hire work.

It was the Officer’s view that option three would be the best option. Officers had found that drivers were failing the test multiple times before getting licensed elsewhere. Resulting in an increased amount of out of town drivers operating in the South Ribble area, with Officers having no enforcement powers over these drivers. The Licensing Manager explained that the additional hackney carriage test, highway code, english and math skills section of the test would remain in place and would not be changed.

In response to a member enquiry, it was confirmed that the consultation was provided to all licenced drivers. A lot of the responses had been received from the school operator whose best interest it was to have the single use badges in operation.

Members sought clarification on how the single use badge would be enforced and how it would be presented to members of the public. It was confirmed that officer’s could add a condition to the licence which would require signage to be displayed on the vehicle so the public would know it was a restricted licence.

A Member of the Public addressed the committee and explained that they were passionate about school transport. The local area knowledge test would not benefit their drivers as they complete one route a day, quite often taking passengers out of the borough. The operator explained that they were sending drivers down to Essex to be licenced which was cumbersome and only a limited number of drivers could be taken on. The operator advised Members that  58 children in the borough were currently not going to school in the borough and were being transported by a standard taxi, who would not have the same vetting, equipment or experience or by their parents.

Members considered all proposals and agreed that Option 3 was the preferred option, emphasising the need to keep the english and maths element of the test. Drivers would also be asked to undertake a Sat Nav test to demonstrate their understanding on how they operated.

Resolved: (Unanimously)

1.     The committee note the report.

2.     The committee considered all consultation responses and agreed to recommend Option 3 (the removal of the local area knowledge test completely for all new Private Hire Licences, but keeping a section of the test for highway code, english and math skills) to the next meeting of Council with the recommendation for formal adoption of the proposed policy.