Issue - meetings

A report by the Assistant Director (Localities) is attached.

1.   Licence Holder 24/2017 attended the meeting and was accompanied by his wife and brother.

                    The Chair outlined the procedure to be followed and the Licensing Unit Manager presented a report submitted by the Assistant Director (Localities) which was accepted, in most part, by the Licence holder.

                    The report explained that on 6 July 2017 a Licensing advisor took a complaint regarding the Licence Holder, from the Manager at a home health care service in Bury, on behalf of her client.  The care service have a contract with a private hire operator who the Licence Holder driver is employed by. The complaint alleged that the Licence Holder had failed to strap the client’s wheelchair correctly into the private hire vehicle, allowing the wheelchair to move and banging the client’s

                    foot, causing severe bruising.  A photograph of the patient’s foot and written witness statement made by the client’s support worker were distributed to the members of the Licensing and Safety Panel prior to this hearing.

                    The background of the complaint was that the care service client was attending her 70^th birthday party in Bury on Sunday 2 July and a member of staff had ordered her a taxi at 5 pm to be returned to her home address.  The member of staff stated that she had seen the driver before and he had previously driven the client but was not one of her regular drivers.  The Licence Holder asked if anyone would be travelling with the client and was told no as she was capable of travelling alone.  On this occasion the client was using her electric wheel chair, not her manual one and the Licence Holder pushed her into the taxi and the member of staff left him to strap her in.  The member of staff went back to collect presents and then followed with another client in her car who lives with the client.

                    The member of staff states that she saw the taxi pulled over in a layby just before the Town Hall in Bury on the way to the client’s home and saw the Licence Holder go into the back of the taxi with the client.  As the member of staff had another client in her vehicle she could not pull in behind.

                    The client cannot speak properly but communicates through her Social Worker and with spell cards and on Tuesday 4 July, she told a member of staff that her foot was sore and that the Licence Holder had not strapped her in properly and when he had pulled over he had asked her if she was ok and adjusted the straps.  The member of staff reported to her manager that she had seen the vehicle pull over on the return journey home.

                    The Licence Holder addressed the Panel and explained that he believed he had strapped the client in properly and that the member of staff had witnessed him do so. He stated that he couldn’t understand why if they had thought he  ...  view the full minutes text for item 286