Agenda and minutes

Venue: virtually via Microsoft Teams

Contact: Democratic Services  6139

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Simultaneous Translation

You are welcome to use Welsh at the meeting, a minimum notice period of 3 working days is required should you wish to do so.  A simultaneous translation will be provided if requested.

 

Minutes:

It was noted that no requests had been received for the simultaneous translation service.

 

2.

Apologies

To receive.

Minutes:

No apologies for absence was received.

 

3.

Declarations of Interest or Dispensations

To receive.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest or dispensations reported.

 

4.

Schedule of Applications for Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Vehicles

To consider the report of the Senior Licensing Officer.

Minutes:

Having regard to the views expressed by the Proper Officer regarding the public interest test, that on balance the public interest, in maintaining the exemption, outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information and that the report should be exempt.

 

RESOLVED that the public be excluded whilst this item of business is transacted as it was likely there would be a disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 12 & 14, Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.

 

Consideration was given to the report of the Senior Licensing Officer, whereupon:-

 

Hackney Carriage/Private Hire Vehicle Driver

Licence No. 234

 

The Applicant was introduced to Officers and Members of the Committee.

At the invitation of the Chair the Team Manager – Licensing advised that the applicant had been a Licence Holder for many years and the case was before Committee to determine if the Licence Holder was a fit and proper person to hold a licence.

 

The Team Manager provided an overview of allegations which had been reported to the Licensing Team. It was advised that these allegations had been discussed with the Licence Holder who also had concerns, however the Licence Holder had failed to raise these concerns with the Transport Team or the Licensing Team.

 

The Chair then invited the Applicant to present his case.

 

The Applicant advised that on occasions when gifts of sweets or chocolates were offered and refused the passenger would be upset. The Applicant added that the passenger had asked him to buy them sweets which the Applicant had refused. The passenger had also left him notes.

 

At the invitation of the Chair the Applicant gave his reasons for why the Committee should not revoke his Licence. The Applicant advised that he had been a Licence Holder for many years and had not done anything wrong. The Applicant added that he had taken the behaviour in jest and had therefore felt he did not need to report the matter.

 

The Chair invited questions from Members at this juncture.

 

A number of questions were raised by Members in relation to training undertaken by the Applicant, the reason for no escort was on journeys with the Applicant and Young Passenger and Police action on the allegations. The Applicant was also asked how long he had held his licence and had there been any other previous similar complaints. Members had also requested feedback from the PSM Meetings held with school representatives, social workers, Local Authority officers and the Police.

 

The questions were responded to accordingly by the Applicant and Officers.

 

The Applicant and Licensing Officers left the meeting at this juncture for Members to consider the application.

 

The Committee discussed the application at length and a decision was made, and the Applicant and Officers were invited back into the meeting.

 

The Chair confirmed that Members had given due consideration to the application and asked the Solicitor to read out the decision of the Licensing Committee, as follows:-

 

The matter was brought before the Committee by the Council’s Licencing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.