The Vice-Chairman, Councillor Kiddell chaired this meeting

To confirm the Minutes of the meeting held on 12 January 2022.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 12 January 2022 were confirmed as a correct record.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Duffield, Kiddle-Morris and Morton.

None.

The duties to register, disclose and not to participate for the entire consideration of the matter, in respect of any matter in which a Member has a disclosable pecuniary interest are set out in Chapter 7 of the Localism Act 2011.  Members are also required to withdraw from the meeting room as stated in the Standing Orders of this Council.

None declared.

Councillor Bambridge, the Portfolio Holder for Licensing was in attendance.

Report by Craig Fowler, Environmental Health & Licensing Manager and Josie Hoven, Licensing Team Leader.

Josie Hoven, the Licensing Team Leader provided Members with a detailed overview of the report.

On 12 January 2022, the Licensing Committee agreed to go out to consultation on the proposed hackney carriage fares and taxi licensing fees as the last increase in both areas occurred in 2015.

The consultations on both the fees and fares had taken place and the Committee was now being asked to consider the responses and approve the final fees and fares and the date each should come into effect.

Hackney Carriage Fares - The Town and Police Clauses Act 1847 and the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 s.65 allowed local authorities to set and review hackney carriage fares. Breckland Council could only set a maximum fare level. The fare shown on the meter was the maximum that could be charged. If drivers wished to charge less than the maximum this would be an arrangement between themselves and the hirer.

Taxi Licensing Fees - Section 70 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 allowed a District Council to charge such fees for the grant of vehicle and operator’s licences as sufficient in the aggregate to cover in whole or in part the reasonable cost of carrying out inspections on private hire and hackney carriage vehicles for the determination of granting or renewing a licence, the reasonable costs of providing hackney carriage stands and any reasonable administrative costs with the grant, renewal, the control and supervision of hackney carriage and private hire vehicles.

For comparison the current hackney carriage fare chart had been attached at Appendix A and the proposed new tables of hackney carriage fares could be found on Appendix B of the report. The current taxi licence fees had been attached at Appendix C and the proposed taxi licence fees had been attached at Appendix D of the report.

The options available for Members to consider and the reasons for the recommendations were highlighted (see section 3 of the report).

The recommendations were read aloud.

The context of the additional information that contained a new table of fares and circulated prior to the start of the meeting and had also been included in the Agenda pack as a late paper was then explained (see page 10 of the agenda pack).

It was explained that a meeting had been held on Friday 18 March 2022 at the Council Offices with the taxi trade to discuss the current situation with Hackney Carriage Fares and Taxi Licence Fees.  This had been submitted since the publication of the agenda and was due to the increases in fuel costs etc since the start of the Ukrainian war.

Eight members of the licensed trade had attended the meeting. Discussion was had around the increase in fuel costs and the general cost of living since the report had been written as the trade had expressed concern for their livelihoods.

The majority of the trade present had agreed a new proposal for the Fare Tariff chart as attached at Appendix  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15/22