Agenda item

Tom Ince (Principal Compliance Officer) has prepared a briefing note to update the Licensing Committee on the latest position in relation to implementing a new schedule of tariffs and fees for hackney carriages in Wiltshire. 

Tom Ince (Principal Compliance Officer) referred to the briefing note circulated with the Agenda and highlighted the following:

·       At the Committee meeting in January 2020, Members were asked to give agreement for Officers to commence consultation on a proposal to change the taxi tariffs in Wiltshire.  This came following extensive work to look at ways to increase safeguarding issues, encourage people to use taxis more and to aid recovery of the late-night sectors across the towns;

·       The consultation took place successfully in February 2020.  The Council received 257 responses to the consultation, 207 of these from hackney carriage drivers and 50 from the public or businesses.  The 207 responses represented 24% of licensed hackney carriage drivers responding.  10% were in favour of the proposal and 14% were against it.  Most drivers generally had no opinion – they were not for or against the proposals that Officers were trying to put in place to try and stimulate the night time economy in Wiltshire.  There were however pockets of support, mainly in the north and south of the county;

·       After reviewing feedback and listening to the views of the trade Officers considered that there could be an option for drivers to be able to charge tariff 2 on a Sunday as that appeared to be the only contentious point to the proposal;

·       At the January meeting, Officers were given delegated authority to implement the changes but because of Covid and the additional financial pressures on the Council Officers were not able to get approval for any unbudgeted advertising spend (which is a requirement as per legislation) at this time.  Officers would need to submit a revenue bid as part of the 2021/22 budget setting process amount, and they were hopeful that if this could be approved the changes could then be implemented; and

·       Officers wished to assure all that this development had not been stopped, but that there had been a delay, primarily due to Covid and because of the financial impact on the Council.

The Chair reminded the Committee of the detailed process that had been undertaken to get to this stage and to reassure that there was a willingness to have a stronger and proactive relationship with the taxi trade now and in the future and those stronger links will move more a more efficient service for all.

A Committee Member reported that whilst they had no issue with the recommendations they were concerned about a proposal to suggest that the costs for statutory advertising of the changes could be funded by Area Boards or the Salisbury Recovery Fund as they did not think those were the appropriate places to seek the funding from and that the issue was that unless the funding from the revenue bid was successful, the Council would not be in a position to make any changes to tariffs  again that needed advertising.  If Officers needed support around that as a fundamental part of the service’s regulatory process, then the Member felt that to be denied the opportunity to do that stops Officers from doing their jobs.  The Member felt that this would need to be looked at so that time was not wasted on carrying out a consultation from which changes could not be implemented due to financial restrictions.

Tom Ince (Principal Compliance Officer) confirmed that since the circulation of the briefing note that it had been identified that those funding streams were not appropriate and that was why they would be putting in the revenue bid to the 2020/21 budget and would continue to do so, so that they were in a position to carried out the necessary advertising to make the changes.

Adrian Hampton (Head of Service – Highway Operations) reported that this had been a budgetary challenge as when consideration had been given to the level of response to the consultation and the because the appetite for change was quite low – assessments had to be made on the priority for spending on advertising.  It was accepted that when Officers consult on proposed changes that this should be a driver for revenue budgets and although the pockets of demand across the county was small, Officers were supportive to make those changes and it would be helpful to capture the comments and views of this Committee to strengthen the revenue bid.

The Committee member felt that Officers had carried out a lot of work, issued a consultation, raised expectations that there was to be a change and now we were in a position that were not able to currently proceed because the money was not budgeted for and that perhaps going forward this should be in place before such work is carried out.

Sarah Marshall (Senior Solicitor) was asked to reiterate the Council’s position from a legal perspective and confirmed that there was a reasonable expectation from the public that changes would be proposed, consulted on, responses received, properly considered and then any changes implemented.  For the Council to then report that no funding was now available may encourage a challenge.  Whilst the demand county wide for change was low, there were small areas within Wiltshire where there would potentially be a higher expectation of change. 

Adrian Hampton confirmed that with the support of Officers and the Licensing Committee a revenue bid of £10,000 would be submitted to the 2021/22 budget (capturing the views of this Committee) whereby it was hoped that the revenue bid would be successful and the changes could be duly advertised and implemented.

Another Panel Member felt that the current predicament was unsatisfactory and was concerned that should the bid be refused and have to be resubmitted a later date the trade may have changed their views on the proposed changes.  He felt that it was important to get this agreed and implemented as soon as possible.

Sarah Marshall suggested that there may potentially be relevant case law which may assist Officers dealing with the revenue bid and Officers could be advised on this outside of the meeting.

Resolved:

That the update on proposed changes to the Taxi tariff schedule for hackney carriages be noted.