Agenda item

Report of the Licensing Manager.

Mr. Millership of Mouchel Ltd. has been invited to attend the meeting to present the findings of the hackney carriage unmet demand survey and to answer any questions the committee may have.

The Licensing Manager presented a report to enable Members to consider the findings of the survey conducted by Mouchel Ltd.

Members were reminded that the Council currently had a policy of restricting the number of Hackney Carriage licences issued. However, in maintaining such a policy the Council had to provide evidence that there was no significant unmet demand for Hackney Carriage services within the area in order to be in a position to refuse any new applications for additional licences. For this purpose, it was considered necessary to commission an independent survey to assess the level of demand for hackney carriage services, and that such survey should be conducted by an organisation specialising in this area of work.

Members were advised that in 2007 a hackney carriage demand survey was carried out by Transportation Planning (International) Limited (TPI) on the Council’s behalf. At that time, TPI had concluded that there was no significant unmet demand for hackney carriages and at a meeting of the Licensing Regulatory Committee held on the 21 April 2008 members resolved to maintain the existing policy restricting the number of hackney carriages licensed to 109.

It was generally accepted that the findings of hackney carriage demand surveys were valid for no longer than three years. An independent survey to assess the level of demand for Hackney Carriage services had, therefore, been commissioned from Mouchel Ltd.

Mr. Millership of Mouchel gave a detailed presentation of the findings of the study and answered questions from members. A copy of Mouchel’s final report was appended to the Licensing Manager’s report for members’ information.

Mr. Millership reported that the objectives of the study were to determine whether or not there existed a significant unmet demand for Hackney Carriage services and to determine the number of licences required to meet any identified unmet demand in Lancaster City.   On the basis of the analyses conducted, the conclusion had been that a significant unmet demand did not exist for Hackney Carriages in Lancaster City at present.

During the presentation Mr. Millership gave an overview of Mouchel’s recommendations.

He drew attention to the excellent service which was provided at the daytime rank at Market Street in Morecambe, commenting that this should be encouraged and consolidated. The bus station rank in Lancaster also provided a good service, and the video survey of the rank had recorded an excellent example of a driver providing assistance to a wheelchair user. Mr. Millership also commented that Licensing provided a very good service to drivers, and that the Taxi Liaison Group was very good.

Members requested that the Democratic Support Officer arrange for a press release to be released which drew attention to findings of the survey.

The report recommended that the installation of information boards at ranks to advertise service be considered, this was a recommendation that was currently being made to a large number of licensing authorities. It was also recommended that service to late night pressure points be checked between May and July 2011 to ensure that they were working properly. A measured response to the Equality Act was encouraged, and it was advised that co-operation with the trade was essential to achieve the best result. The report also commented that the rank review in Morecambe was necessary and should be carried out as planned.

Members were requested to consider the above findings, and to determine whether to maintain the existing policy restricting the number of hackney carriage licences to 109, or perhaps review the policy on limiting the number of licences issued.

It was proposed by Councillor Denwood and seconded by Councillor Wade:

“That, based on the anayses presented by Mouchel Limited, the existing policy restricting the number of hackney carriage licences issued to 109 be maintained.”

Upon being put to the vote, Members voted unanimously in favour of the proposal, whereupon the Chairman declared the proposition to be carried.

Resolved:

That, based on the analyses presented by Mouchel Limited, the existing policy restricting the number of hackney carriage licences issued to 109 be maintained.