Agenda and draft minutes

Present

Apologies

Ben Thomson (BT) – Assistant Director

Chris Smith (CS)- Head of Public Protection – Chair 

Michael Bridge (MB) – Licensing Unit Manager 

PC Peter Eccleston (PE) – GMP Bury District Licensing Officer 

Sham Raja (SR) – National Private Hire & Taxi Association 

Khalid Hussain (KH) – Bury Hackney Association 

Cllr. Imran Rizvi (IR)– Chair of Licensing and Safety Committee 

Kirsty Wild (KW) – Magnum Whiteline 

Charles Oakes (CO) – The Hackney Driver Assoc. Ltd 

David Lawrie Director of the National Private Hire Taxi Association 

Habib Ur-Rehman - GMB Union 

Councillor C Morris - Cabinet Member  

Item No.

Topic

Action

1.

Welcome and Apologies

2.

Previous minutes and Actions

All agreed

3.

GMP Update - PE

19 incidents recorded since last meeting.

Nothing relating to damage on taxis reported

SR - Discussion on incident occurring on 28^th February 2024

BT/KW discussion on reporting and PE asked to remind everyone to stipulate in reports that they are taxi drivers, for reporting software

SR – discussion around beggars outside business premises becoming aggressive as well as impacting the business

PE discussed Operation Heartbeat as a possible solution

PE to send update on incident on 28^th February 2024 ready for next meeting (and to be put in minutes)

4.

Clean Air Plan Update

BT – policy change RE: non-compliant vehicles. As part of the CAP all Bury vehiclesmust be compliant by 1 January 2026

Policy allows us to place a condition on licences that by the 1 of January 2026 the hackney carriage and private hire vehicles must be compliant (Euro 4 Petrol and Euro 6 Diesel).

TfGM have made new submissions to the government, and we are awaiting a response.

Revised application requestedan investment led non charging Clean Air Plan.

Full compliance is needed by 1^st January 2026

Pushing for Clean Taxi fund as a region – but the decision lies with Central Government.

CO – How many hackney carriages – (36)

BT – All authorities must comply with the Government Directive on emission standards.

CO –raised the issue of the lack of vehicles available for Taxis to be upgraded to and the cost of these vehicles.

BT Bury and TfGM are under a legal obligation to follow a directive because of the emissions data given. BT understands the frustration behind this, and we are aware of the need for funding in order to allow drivers to upgrade to compliant vehicles

CO – Bury Council has a legal duty to provide Hackneys.

KW – Struggling to provide Wheelchair accessible vehicles in Bury. Discussion on cost of these jobs. Appreciate the extension of the vehicle ages by Bury Council

CS asks what the barriers (cost, availability of suitable vehicles)

SR – agreeing with CO and KW about difficulties and frustrations with the funding for the CTF. Frustration around distribution of funding across hackney carriages and PHV across GM

BT discussion on breakdown of the Clean Taxi Fund for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.