Agenda item

Report number:     CAB/WS/22/035

Portfolio holder: Councillor Andy Drummond

Lead Officer: Jen Eves

Resolved:

That, as detailed in Report number: CAB/WS/22/035, the following changes to the West Suffolk Council Taxi and Private Hire Conditions Policy Handbook be approved:

1.   merge the two taxi zones into one single zone

2.   remove all wheelchair accessible vehicle (WAV) requirements for hackney carriage vehicle (HCV) licensees

3.   set maximum age limit for a vehicle at 15 years          

The Cabinet considered this report, which sought approval for a number of changes to the West Suffolk Council Taxi and Private Hire Conditions Policy Handbook.

A comprehensive study of taxi provision in West Suffolk had been undertaken in autumn 2021, which focussed on a number of areas listed in paragraph 1.3 of the report.

The review brought together the perspectives of various stakeholders and the trade, alongside data and other information from a range of case studies and previous reports. In addition, a consultant was commissioned to undertake two specific surveys: one on the taxi zones and the other on wheelchair accessible vehicles, which sought the views of the trade and disabled users. As a result of the feedback from this review, a long-term vision for the trade was developed, which was to achieve a safe, accessible, green, and thriving fleet by 2030, as set out in section 4.2 of the report. To help work towards this vision, three major changes to the taxi policy were proposed, the first one being permanent and the other two offering a short-term approach to allow further work to be undertaken to consider how best to achieve the vision. These were to:

1.           merge the two taxi zones into one single zone.

2.           remove all wheelchair accessible vehicle (WAV) requirements for hackney carriage vehicle (HCV) licensees.

3.           set the maximum age limit for a vehicle at 15 years.

These proposals were subject to public consultation, the results of which showed most people were in favour of the changes. Some other minor amendments to the Policy Handbook would also be implemented under existing delegated authority. These were not subject to consultation.

The report provided extensive details of the rationale behind the proposals, as follows:

Section 2:    West Suffolk Council Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Conditions Policy Handbook: descriptions and requirements

Section 3:    Summary of findings from review, autumn 2021

Section 4:    Future vision for the taxi trade in West Suffolk

Section 5:    Proposed changes to the policy

Section 6:    Consultation on the three proposals

Section 7:    Summary of consultation feedback

Section 8:    Discussion of consultation findings

Section 9:    Alternative options that had been considered

Section 10:  Conclusions and next steps

Appendix A:Taxi and private hire vehicle policy - review of taxi zones and WAVs (the full report to complement section 3).

Appendix B:West Suffolk Council taxi policy review: consultation survey summary (full results to complement section 7).

Councillor Andy Drummond, Portfolio Holder for Regulatory and Environment, drew relevant issues to the attention of Cabinet, including that while the merging of the zones would be a permanent change, the other changes were interim measures as summarised above. This would include re-assessing the level of WAV provision and determining how this could be achieved, as well as ensuring that the Council was compliant with its legal responsibility to ensure the needs and safety of the travelling public was met. This would necessitate ongoing engagement with all stakeholders about when and how to introduce relevant policy levers to achieve the 2030 vision summarised above. Further details of how the approach would be monitored and the proposed ongoing engagement to be undertaken with stakeholders was detailed in section 10.

If approved, an implementation plan would commence, which aimed to see the changes being put into place from autumn 2022.

The Cabinet supported the proposals and felt it was a sensible and pragmatic approach to achieving the vision of a safe, accessible, green, and thriving fleet by 2030. Having considered the outcomes of the consultation and the ongoing monitoring and engagement measures being put in place moving forward, it was agreed that the revised Policy Handbook would provide a complete package to benefit the taxi trade and customers alike.

Resolved:

That, as detailed in Report number: CAB/WS/22/035, the following changes to the West Suffolk Council Taxi and Private Hire Conditions Policy Handbook be approved:

1.   merge the two taxi zones into one single zone

2.   remove all wheelchair accessible vehicle (WAV) requirements for hackney carriage vehicle (HCV) licensees

3.   set maximum age limit for a vehicle at 15 years