Eastleigh Borough Council Administration Committee Meeting

There were no declarations of interest in relation to items of business at this point on the agenda.

RESOLVED -

That the Minutes of the meeting held on 26 June 2023 be confirmed and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

The Electoral Services Manager presented the report (Agenda Item 5).

The table on page 2 of the report stated that it was proposed that BO2 would combine with BO1 and move to the Botley Centre, this was incorrect and BO2 will remain at Norman Rodaway Pavillion.

RESOLVED –

That the Administration Committee:

(1)  NOTED the findings of the polling review, and the committees thanks to respondents was recorded.

(2)  APPROVED that Botley polling district BO3 became a standalone polling station and moved to the new Community Building at Boorley Green.

(3)  APPROVED combining BU1 and HS2 polling stations together to the Village Hall, St Johns Road, as both were in the same Town Council ward following the changes to Hedge End Town Council.

(4)  APPROVED that in Eastleigh North, the polling station for EN5 was moved from the Cafe at Eastleigh House to St Peter’s Church.

(5)  APPROVED transferring ES2 polling station to Emmanuel Church Hall to create a combined polling station with ES1.

(6)  APPROVED changing the polling place for ES4 to the new YMCA building at North Stoneham.

(7)  NOTED that all other polling districts and places remained unchanged.

The Senior Licensing Officer presented the report (Agenda Item 6).

The Senior Licensing Officer confirmed that the Licensing Team were looking at alternative courses and were due to sit the disability awareness course at Blue Lamp (course provider) to see if it was suitable.

The Chair requested that the Senior Licensing Officer share their findings with the Administration Committee when they were available,

RESOLVED –

That the Administration Committee APPROVED the removal of condition 1.9 of the Private Hire Vehicle Driver Policy and 1.8 of the Hackney Carriage Driver Policy, which required all drivers to enrol and complete a BTech qualification for transporting passengers by taxi and private hire vehicles. The removal of this condition was due to a lack of course providers and outdated course content.

The Senior Licensing Officer presented the report (Agenda Item 7).

The Senior Licensing Officer provided the following update, which had been taken from the taxi and private hire vehicle licensing best practice guidance published by the Department for Transport on Friday 17 November 2023:

Licensing authorities should not impose a livery requirement on private hire vehicles. The more distinctive a private hire vehicle is made to appear, the greater the chance that this might be confused with a taxi. To assist the differentiation further, licensing authorities which require taxis to be a particular colour should prevent private hire vehicles from being that same colour, unless they are easily identifiable i.e. they are purpose-built vehicles as is the case in many of our cities.

Licensing authorities’ private hire vehicle signage requirements should be limited to the authority licence plate or disc and a “pre-booked only” door sign.

This approach enables passengers to be given the clear and consistent message that you should only get in a vehicle that ‘has a taxi sign on the roof’ unless you have pre-booked a private hire vehicle and have received information from the operator to identify it.

A private hire vehicle driver and proprietor are free to work with more than one operator and licensing conditions or requirements that effectively tie a vehicle or driver into an exclusive relationship with an operator should not be implemented or should be discontinued where these are currently imposed. Examples of such policies are a requirement for the private hire vehicle to display the name of the operator under which it is operating by means of a permanent or semi-permanent sign, or to require a driver to advise the licensing authority of the operator who they intend to work for and require notification in advance of any change.

RESOLVED –

That the Administration Committee APPROVED:

(1)  The content of the report, appendices and any comments made to the consultation;

(2)  The removal of the condition requiring the display of the private hire operator details; and

(3)  Added additional driver and operator conditions to safeguard against cancelled jobs with no justification, thereby addressing public safety concerns should operator details be removed.

(NOTE: Steve Lucas, Hackney Carriage Trade Representative, spoke in objection to the removal of the.

Two statements were read out in support of removing the conditions from Ali Haydor (Southampton Branch Secretary (S37), Chair of GMB National Committee (Uber) and National Rep (Taxi & Private Hire-SO)), and Jason Kauder (Former Private Hire Trade Representative).

There was no public participation on this occasion.