Agenda item

The Committee will receive an update from the Licensing Authority Working Group which met on 11 November 2019.  A copy of the notes from the meeting are attached.

Tom Ince (Principal Compliance Officer) reported that one of the key objectives of the Licensing Authority Working Group was to review fares and tariffs and this process was started in June 2019 when the Council challenged the trade to come up with a proposal that could be adopted across Wiltshire.  This gave the opportunity for the trade to input as businesses.  It is important that the Council is aware that the tariffs will need to be viable to operators.  It was made clear that the trade would need to come up with a tariff that is fit for purpose by 6 December 2019. 

Officers met with the trade again in October to check on progress and at that meeting there was some common agreement at that point to relax the use of Tariff 3 and extending Tariff 2.  In order to pull together a formal proposal in November Officers offered to facilitate a meeting at Council offices in order for the trade to meet and thrash out a proposal. That meeting was held last week at which we received one formal proposal from a representative of one area, but Officers have not yet received anything from the other 3 areas.  Officers intend to send details to the trade and extend the deadline to the end of the year to then enable a proposal to be drafted in the new year and put out to formal consultation. 

Julie Anderson-Hill (Head of Culture and Operational Change) reported that the team had been working with the trade for a considerable time and she had been invited to the Salisbury Purple Flag event and was keen to understand the trades concerns and anxiety and views that were being shared. The very small taxi service team have been working hard and have found that the Salisbury taxi trade appear to be very separate to the audience Officers was talking to at the Purple Flag event. Officers have considered whether there is an opportunity to engage with the Salisbury Taxi Trade direct and to encourage them to attend the Taxi trade meetings and be the voice for Salisbury as the feedback does not appear to be coming from Salisbury trade representatives.

A Committee Member acknowledged that there are multiple things going on in Salisbury, but that this Committee’s primary objective is to ensure that all Wiltshire taxis are licenced and are safe for customers.  They noted the criticism in relation to the numbers of taxis in operation, but the Council were not able to make them go to certain places where others might feel there is a need.  The Member felt that there were separating things going on and that they were not all in the remit of the Committee.  Public transport and its funding are an issue and that is a bigger piece of work to be done about transport generally.  There is the risk that if the fees/tariffs are too low businesses will not be able to operate and there will be no taxis available.  They suggested that alternatives be discussed with the Passenger Transport Team.

Tom Ince reported that his team has a monthly meeting with the Passenger Transport Team to ensure any changes made that impact licensing and the taxi provision for the County contracts are known.

The Chairman suggested that links be made with the military to see if a bus or similar could be used and work with them and the BID to see what work could be done together to make improvements.

A Committee Member suggested that the 3 speakers from Salisbury work with their Area Boards and contact their Salisbury Councillors with their concerns.

Julie Anderson-Hill wished to reiterate that whilst there are several components that need solving for Salisbury, the tariffs had not changed in 5 years and at that time the rest of the County rose to Salisbury’s tariff which is the maximum tariff that can be charged.

The Chairman commented that the Committee are passionate [MS1] to resolve the issues reported and suggested that contact details be exchanged at the end of the meeting with the offer to get together to discuss further and invite input and feedback from all.

The Chairman then explained that the process for any change to tariff would be as follows:

·       Officers to receive proposals for any changes to the tariffs by the end of December 2019

·       Officers report these proposals to Licensing Committee (at Extraordinary meeting of Licensing Committee in January 2020) and agreement is sought to send out to consultation

·       28-day consultation process launched (including in the local press) and sent to representatives on Pubwatch and Purple Flag and Salisbury BID Licensing Committee consider feedback from consultation and make a decision on any changes to tariffs for Wiltshire at a meeting in Spring 2020.

It was suggested that an invite to respond to the consultation be extended to the Salisbury Bid and the Purple Flag.

Resolved:

An extra ordinary meeting of the Licensing Committee would meet in January 2020 to consider the feedback and any proposals arising from the consultation and take a decision on changes to the tariffs in Wiltshire.