Agenda item

Report of the Assistant Director of Place (Highways and Public Protection)

Further to Minute No. 16 (2) of the meeting held on 12 September 2023 the Committee considered the report of the Assistant Director of Place (Highways and Public Protection) on wider taxi issues in Sefton including how hackney carriages could be further encouraged within the Sefton area.

The report indicated that the existing numerical restriction applied to hackney carriage vehicle licences had been in place since 1986 when the limit was set at 271; that the Council had discretion to limit the number of hackney carriage vehicles it chose to licence for the purpose of controlling their numbers; that current legislation stated the only reason on which an application for a hackney carriage licence could be refused was that the Council was satisfied that there was no significant demand for hackney carriage services that were not being met; and that this meant that the Council was satisfied that there were enough licensed hackney carriages to serve the public without issuing any more.

To gather evidence on the significant demand for hackney carriage services the Council undertook a hackney carriage demand survey; the last survey was undertaken in 2019 and found that “the overall conclusion is that there is no evidence of council rank-based unmet demand that is significant and that the strong view of the Trade is that the limit should be retained and can be supported”; and that current statistics showed that Sefton currently had 236 active hackney carriage vehicles and 266 licensed drivers (35 vehicle licences were currently ‘on hold’ with the Council; and that since the 2020 pandemic, hackney carriage driver numbers had steadily reduced leading to vehicle owners being unable to find enough drivers to drive the 271 licensed vehicles.    

The report highlighted potential reasons for the decline in numbers; and that the next unmet demand survey was due to be carried out later this year and would include wide ranging consultation across drivers, vehicle owners, users, business owners and trade representatives together with detailed surveys of rank activity across the borough; and that this would provide an ideal opportunity to better shape the scope and range of the survey to properly understand and address any issues concerning the hackney carriage trade.

Members of the Committee asked questions/commented on the following issues:

·       The scarcity of London style hackney carriages in the north of the borough and the negative impact this had on the provision of wheelchair accessible licensed vehicles to local residents

·       The inclusion of local NHS organisations as consultees in the next unmet demand survey

·       The Level 4 Devolution Framework offer to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in connection with improving consistency and efficiency in taxi and private vehicle licensing

RESOLVED: That