Agenda and minutes

To elect a Vice Chair for the 2012/13 municipal year.

RESOLVED that Councillor Thomas be elected as Vice-Chair for the 2012/13 municipal year.

Apologies were received from Councillors Mrs Blatchford, Fitzhenry, B  Harris, and L Harris.

To approve and sign as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 22^nd March 2012 and to deal with any matters arising, attached.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 22^nd March 2012 be approved and signed as a correct record.  (Copy of the minutes appended to the agenda and circulated with the signed minutes).

Report of the Head of Legal, HR and Democratic Services detailing a report by the Halcrow Group Ltd concerning Hackney Carriage demand in relation to the City Council’s current policy of numerical control of the number of Hackney Carriage Licences issued, attached.

The Committee considered the report of the Head of Legal, HR and Democratic Services setting out a report by the Halcrow Group Limited, concerning Hackney Carriage demand in relation to the City Council’s current policy of numerical control of the number of Hackney Carriage licences issued. (Copy of the report circulated with the agenda and appended to he signed minutes).

The Committee received a presentation by Ms L Richardson from the Halcrow Group, providing details of the study conducted.

Members of the trade and representatives of the Southampton Hackney Carriage Association, the Southampton Taxi Association and Unite Cab Section were present and with the consent of the Chair, Mr Johnson, Mr Perry, Mr Hall and Mr S Afzal, addressed the meeting.

The following was noted:-

• that the study had identified that there was no evidence of significant unmet demand for hackney carriages in Southampton; and
• spikes in demand were not a result of the numerical restriction but other local factors including access to the docks / the number of dock permits applied for and the physical provision of rank space in the City – none of which would be affected by removal of the limit, and:
• that the issues relating to extended taxi ranks and permits for the docks was not an issue for the Licensing Committee whilst determining this particular matter, but  otherwise generally for the Highways Department and ABP.

The Committee accepted legal advice that when making their decision it was important that they did not base it only on the unmet demand figures, but that relevant Government Guidance, attached as Appendix 2 to the report, should also be taken into consideration.   This was considered carefully but local factors as identified in the report felt to outweigh the Guidance in this instance.

Councillor Parnell put forward the following proposal, seconded by Councillor Thomas which was unanimously adopted:-

RESOLVED that having taken into consideration the reports, presentation, comments and relevant government guidance, the number of licensed hackney carriages should continue to be restricted to 283.