Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Cank, Dr. Moore, Pickering and Dr. Sangster.

Members are asked to declare any interests they may have in the business on the agenda.

Members were asked to declare any interest they may have in the business on the agenda.

There were no declarations.

The minutes of the meeting held on 9^th July 2019 are attached and the Commission will be asked to confirm them as a correct record.

RESOLVED:

that the minutes of the meeting held on 9^th July 2019 be approved as a correct record.

The Monitoring Officer to report on the receipt of any petitions submitted in accordance with the Council’s procedures.

The Monitoring Officer reported that no petitions had been submitted in accordance with the Council’s procedures.

The Monitoring Officer to report on the receipt of any questions, representations and statements of case submitted in accordance with the Council’s procedures.

The Monitoring Officer reported that no questions, representations and statements of case had been submitted in accordance with the Council’s procedures.

The Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services submits a report which seeks the views of the Committee on the forthcoming consultation on pavement café licensing.

Members are recommended to comment on the café licensing policy and any changes that may be appropriate.

The Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services submitted a report which sought the views of the Committee on the forthcoming consultation on pavement café licensing. Members were recommended to comment on the café licensing policy and any changes that might be appropriate.

The Chief Licensing Officer presented the report. It was noted the Deputy City Mayor had approved a public consultation on what would be a light touch review of the policy. It was reported that currently all pavement café licences expired on 31 May each year. It was proposed to amend this to licences expiring 12 months after date of issue subject to consultation responses. The consultation would run online for one month and affected businesses would be contacted and invited to participate.

Members noted the proposed amendment to the pavement café licensing policy and had no further comments to make.

The Chair thanked the officer for the report.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the contents of the report and draft consultation paper be noted.

The Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services submits a report to inform the Committee of the forthcoming driver consultation and to seek views on the private hire operator consultation. Members are recommended to comment on the draft consultation.

Members of the public present were asked to leave the meeting during consideration of the agenda item.

RESOLVED:

that the press and public be excluded during consideration of the following report, in accordance with the provisions of Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, because it involved the likely disclosure of ‘exempt’ information, as defined in the Paragraph detailed below of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, and taking all the circumstances into account, it was considered that the public interest in maintaining the information as exempt outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information.

Paragraph 3

Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority hold that information).

The Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services submitted a report to inform the Committee of the forthcoming driver consultation and to seek views on the private hire operator consultation. Members were recommended to comment on the draft consultation.

The Chief Licensing Officer presented the report. It was noted the draft consultation would be submitted to the Deputy City Mayor for approval, together with the comments of the Licensing and Public Safety Committee.

The Chief Licensing Officer went through the proposals and noted comments made by Members.

During consideration of the report, Members requested that Passenger and Transport Services (PATs) be invited to the meeting of the Committee on 11 February 2020 to provide information on how they award and run school contracts.

The Chair thanked the officer for the report.

RESOLVED:

that

1.    The contents of the report and draft consultation paper be noted.

2.    The comments of the Licensing and Public Safety Committee be fed back to the Deputy City Mayor.

3.    That PATs be invited to the meeting of the Committee on 11 February 2020 to provide information on how they award and run school contracts.

Members of the public were invited back to the meeting.

The Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services submits a report to inform the Committee of the need for a survey of unmet demand for hackney carriages. Members are recommended to note the report.

The Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services submitted a report to inform the Committee of the need for a survey of unmet demand for hackney carriages. Members were recommended to note the report.

The Chief Licensing Officer presented the report. It was noted that the Council currently limits the number of hackney carriage licences that it issues. It was stated that a survey of unmet demand was necessary to justify maintaining, amending or removing the limit. It was further noted that if the survey found no unmet demand, it may justify retaining a limit on the number of hackney carriages.

The survey would involve observing taxi ranks to see if queues of people awaiting taxis showed unmet demand and vice versa. It was reported there were a number of changes to the locations of taxi ranks planned, and by changing the location of taxi ranks, it would take a while for the situation to level out due to customers potentially being unsure of where the permanent ranks were located. It was therefore proposed to take the survey before changes to rank location were made.

In response to Members’ questions, and external organisation would be procured to undertake the survey, and samples would be taken on different times, and different days of the week to gain a true picture of demand.

The Chair thanked the officer for the report.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.

The meeting closed at 6.08 pm