Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for inability to attend the meeting (if any).

Apologies for inability to attend the meeting were received on behalf of Councillors Webb, Lock, Findlay, Argyle and Hunneman.

To receive any Declarations of Interest from Members.

There were no declarations of interest received. During the discussion of Item 3 Councillor Tony Linden realised that he had an interest in the item. As his interest was not personal and not prejudiced he determined to stay in the meeting and vote on the item.

Purpose: To consider  objections against the proposed fees for hackney carriage drivers and private hire operators set by Council for the financial year 2010/11.

Councillor Tony Linden declared an interest in Item 3 by virtue of the fact that he knew a relation of a member of the Taxi Trade. He had sought advice from the Deputy Monitoring Officer who had advised him that this was neither a personal nor a prejudicial interest. He therefore took part in the debate and voted on the item

Councillor Jeff Beck outlined the purpose and running order of the special meeting:

·        There were two separate elements, which were explained in the report. The first was around licenses and the second around fees. The committee would consider the issue of fees first, following receipt of a request from the Trade representatives.

·        The two representatives from the Trade who had put forward objections, would each be allowed 5 minutes to speak before being questioned by Members. The second speaker was only to bring new evidence to the table.

Brian Leahy introduced the report on Hackney Carriage & Private Hire Licensing. Mr Leahy firstly made the following points:

·        The licensing budget was self funding and should not be taken from the public purse. If Members required further detail on the budget, Paul Anstey would be able to provide this.

·        A further objection from the Trade had been made, but as this was outside of the legal time frame, it would therefore not be considered at the meeting.

The report was in two parts – the first was dealt with in paragraphs 1 to 7.2 and the second in paragraphs 8.1 to 11.2. The second part related to fees which was an issue that the committee could decide on. The fees would either be deemed to be reasonable by the committee, or otherwise. Should Members decide that the fees were not reasonable, the committee would refer this back to officers, who would then put a new proposal back to full Council. Brian Leahy made the point that the Council was not trying to recover retrospective losses with the proposed new fees.

In accordance with paragraph 7.12.14 of the Council’s Constitution, the Chairman suspended standing orders to allow members of the trade to participate in the discussion.

A representative of the trade, Mr Graham Cox, who was speaking on behalf of Mr Jenn (Chairperson of the West Berkshire Executive Hire Association) who had submitted a written objection to the fees, addressed the committee. His concerns were that the increase in the fees was unreasonable and very sudden and constituted a 200% increase. The standard of service they received was not adequate to justify this. He had not seen evidence of the operator checks that were supposed to have taken place and complaints had not been dealt with appropriately or on time.

Councillor Paul Bryant wanted to know more about the supposed failings of the Licensing Service, however, Councillor Jeff Beck stated that this was outside of the remit of the meeting.

In response to a question from Councillor Ieuan Tuck, Brian Leahy stated that the Council had only ever had one fee for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.