Item submitted by Trevor Jones – North West Taxi Association
“Can you please supply the following information for the next meeting:
The amount of money that was given to the Hackney and private hire drivers in the form of a grant (as in payment one and payment two) and how much they received in total and how many drivers were not eligible because they did not live in the LCR region”
Minutes:
The Committee considered an item submitted by Mr Trevor Jones (North-West Taxi Association) requesting details of the grants given by the Liverpool City Region (LCR) to hackney carriage and private hire drivers to support them during the Covid Pandemic (as in payment [1] and payment [2] and how much they received in total. Also, how many drivers were not eligible because they did not live in the LCR.
Mr Mark Quillan (Head of Customer Service – Sefton Council’s One Stop Shop [OSS]) indicated that in October 2020 it had been announced that a £1.5 million-pound Covid fund would be made available to support local Taxi Drivers. This fund would be available to all drivers who lived within the Liverpool City Region and would be allocated proportionately to each local authority. With 15,109 licenced drivers across the Liverpool City Region, it had been confirmed that each driver would be allocated £100 from the fund.
At the time it was estimated that Sefton had 6,746 licensed drivers, therefore the allocation to Sefton would have been £674,600. Mr Quillan stressed that Sefton was not given this amount - it was available from the Liverpool City Region for those drivers who were eligible and who applied to the LCR for the grant.
Mr Quillan indicated that in Round 1 of the grants, whilst there had been an estimated 6,746 drivers licensed with Sefton, only 4,402 Sefton drivers fulfilled the eligibility criteria for the grant – namely those who:
(1) were licensed by Sefton Council on 23rd March 2020; and
(2) who lived within the boundaries of the Liverpool City Region.
There were a further 2,344 Sefton licensed drivers who lived outside of the Liverpool City region and were therefore not entitled to the grant.
Sefton Council had written to all of the 4,402 eligible drivers explaining the scheme and the process for applying for the grant which was via an online e-form. The window to apply was open for six weeks and in that time, 2,620 completed online applications were received.
2,620 grants of £100.00 each had been paid - totalling £262,000, therefore, £412,600 of the monies had not been spent.
Mr Quillan indicated that in January 2021 it had been announced that further Taxi Grant funding would be made available (Round 2) and on this occasion, the grant to be paid out would be £200.00 per driver.
All of the 2,620 drivers who had applied and qualified for the grant in Round One were paid the £200.00 and a reminder was sent to all drivers who did not apply in Round One, which resulted in a further 604 new online applications submitted and subsequently each paid the £200.00.
3,224 grants were paid out in the second round of funding which equated to £644,800.1,178 Sefton licensed drivers did not apply for the second round of the grant.
Mr Quillan concluded that a total of £906,800 in grant money had been paid out to Sefton taxi drivers.
RESOLVED:
That the update on Liverpool City Region grants issued to Sefton taxi drivers be noted.