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Agenda, decisions and minutes

Venue: Remotely via Skype

Contact: Democratic Services  Cabinet and Committee section

Note: Please note: Due to the requirement for social distancing this meeting will not be held at its usual location. This will be a virtual meeting and Committee Members and Officers will be attending remotely. The meeting will be recorded for subsequent transmission via the Council’s internet site which will be available once the meeting has concluded. If you have any queries regarding this, please contact cabinet_committee@bridgend.gov.uk or tel. 01656 643147 / 643148. 

Media

Items
No. Item

42.

Declarations of Interest

To receive declarations of personal and prejudicial interest (if any) from Members/Officers in accordance with the provisions of the Members Code of Conduct adopted by Council from 1 September 2008.

 

 

Minutes:

None.

43.

Application to Licence Private Hire Vehicle pdf icon PDF 101 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Team Manager – Licensing presented a report, the purpose of which, was to ask the sub-committee to consider an application to grant a licence for a private hire vehicle.

 

The application was made by Stacey Jones and Christopher Jones of Bridged to licence a Mercedes E220d vehicle registration number KJ17 FHW as a private hire vehicle to seat 4 persons.

 

The vehicle is pre-owned and was first registered at the DVLA on 7 June 2017.

 

The application falls outside the Private Hire Vehicle Policy approved by the Licensing Committee due to age of the vehicle and policy guidelines. The vehicle was also not wheelchair accessible.  A service report has been submitted for the 6 March 2019 with the mileage recorded at 24923 and for the 14 October 2019 with mileage at 39912.

 

On the 2 July 2020 the vehicle was inspected by a Licensing Enforcement Officer and the vehicle was found to be in good condition.  A Vehicle Assessment form is provided at Appendix A and photographs of the vehicle in Appendix B.

 

The Committee retired to consider the application further, whereupon on their return, it was

 

RESOLVED:                      The Committee considered the application to register vehicle KJ17 FHW as a Private Hire Vehicle.

 

Members noted that it fell outside of the               Licensing Policy provision 2.1, due to the vehicles age and mileage.

 

                                           Members noted that the policy could be relaxed as set out in paragraph 2.2 (of the policy), namely the exceptional interior and exterior quality and the exceptional standards of safety.

 

For these reasons, the Committee granted the licence.

 

44.

Application to Licence Private Hire Vehicle pdf icon PDF 102 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Team Manager – Licensing presented a report, the purpose of which, was to ask the sub-committee to consider an application to grant a licence for a private hire vehicle.

 

           Application was made by G & S Travel Limited of Ogmore Vale to licence a Mercedes Vito vehicle registration number KJ18 HHZ as a private hire vehicle to seat 7 persons.

 

           The vehicle is pre-owned and was first registered at the DVLA on 22 June 2018.

 

The application falls outside the Private Hire Vehicle Policy approved by the Licensing Committee due to age policy guidelines. The vehicle is not wheelchair accessible. A service report has been submitted for the 17 March 2020 with the mileage recorded at 20074. 

 

On the 30 June 2020 a Licensing Enforcement Officer inspected the vehicle and the vehicle was found to be in good condition.  A Vehicle Assessment form is provided at Appendix A and photographs of the vehicle in Appendix B.

 

The Committee retired to consider the application further, whereupon on their return, it was

 

RESOLVED:                      The Committee considered the application to register vehicle KJ18 HHZ as a Private Hire Vehicle.

 

Members noted that it fell outside of the          Licensing Policy provision 2.1, due to the vehicles age and mileage.

 

Members noted that the policy could be relaxed as set out in paragraph 2.2 (of the policy), namely the exceptional interior and exterior quality and the exceptional standards of safety.

 

For these reasons, the Committee granted the licence.

    

45.

Policy on Determining the suitability of Protective Screens in Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Vehicles pdf icon PDF 104 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Licensing Policy Officer presented a report, in order for Members to consider the adoption and publication of a policy on “Temporary Screens in Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles” following consultation with the trade.

 

She advised that the Licensing Authority have received requests from the trade urging the Licensing Department to push through greater in-car safety measures to guard against Covid-19 including the use of safety screens. According to the Office of National Statistics taxi drivers have one of the highest mortality rates of any other occupation in the UK.

 

A draft policy document has been produced, and approved by the Directors of Public Protection in Wales (DPPW), detailing the requirements and approval procedure for the use of screens in vehicles. A copy of this draft policy was attached at Appendix A to the report.

 

           In Bridgend, as at 6 July 2020, there have been a total number of 554 confirmed cases of Covid-19 out of a local population of 147,049; this compares to a total of 15,890 confirmed cases in Wales. As at 26 June there had been 90 Covid related deaths in Bridgend.

 

It is understandable that licence holders will want to put measures in place in order to protect themselves from the transmission of Covid-19. However, this must not impact the safety or integrity of the vehicle. 

 

With the restrictions starting to ease, more and more taxi and private hire drivers are looking to return to work attempting to ensure that they do their upmost to protect themselves and their passengers. Temporary screens in vehicles have been at the forefront of enquiries from the trade in the hope that a physical separation between drivers and passengers may reduce the transmission of Covid-19. 

 

In response to the requests from the trade to install screens in licensed vehicles, the Licensing Expert Panel, made up of representatives from the 22 Welsh local authority Licensing Departments, set up a working group in order to produce guidance for Licensing Authorities to adopt, with the intention of harmonising the approach to the approval of screen installations in Wales.

 

She explained that there are various types of screens on the market, including flexible plastic screens that wrap around the driver and can be easily removed, to rigid polycarbonate plastic screens that have been attached by way of nuts, bolts and rivets to the seats or other interior vehicle trim.

 

The proposed policy is intended to provide guiding principles on how the Licensing Authority will deal with such requests from licence holders who may wish to install a screen in their vehicle. There were a number of safety concerns associated with screens, for example, the potential to interfere with original features of the vehicle such as the side airbags or the movement of the driver’s seat and looks to set out specific requirements to satisfy these concerns.

 

Paragraph 4.7 of the report, then outlined what the requirements of the policy included.

 

The Licensing Authority has consulted the trade on the proposed policy, which included a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45.

46.

Urgent Items

To consider any other item(s) of business in respect of which notice has been given in accordance with Rule 4 of the Council Procedure Rules and which the person presiding at the meeting is of the opinion should by reason of special circumstances be transacted at the meeting as a matter of urgency.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minutes:

None.

 

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