Agenda item

A report from the Executive Director (Operations) is attached.

The Executive Director (Operations) submitted a report outlining the proposal to amend the Council’s current policy relating to the transitional arrangements to enable vehicle proprietors of non-compliant hackney carriage and private hire vehicles to make a renewal application after the 1^st January 2025. The rationale for this relates to the recent submissions to Government with revised proposals around the GM Clean Air Plan and requirement from Government to ensure a GM agreed emissions standard for all Taxi and Private Hire vehicles by the 31^st December 2025.

The Assistant Director Operations Strategy  presented the report to the committee and provided Members with background information as per the report and highlighted a number of tables detailing the number of vehicles this would impact upon.  Members were asked to note that the numbers of non-complaint vehicles had dropped from 225 in January 2024 to 160 in July 2024. This was a reduction of 65 vehicles, with 63 being Private Hire and 2 Hackney Carriages.

The Licensing Service had not undertaken an engagement exercise with the affected Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Trade vehicle proprietors. The reason for this was to enable this matter to be considered by Members given the emission standard is bound by the Councils requirement to comply with a Government Directive in relation to air quality.

If the recommendations contained within the report were not approved by the Committee, it would mean that vehicle proprietors of a non-compliant vehicle would not be able to access the potential Clean Taxi Fund and they would not be able to renew their vehicle licence after the 31^st December 2024 and may prevent and/or disadvantage vehicle proprietors of non-compliant vehicles in Bury from accessing future potential GM clean taxi funding.

A number of Members asked questions and seeked clarification for certain aspects of the report which the Assistant Director Operations Strategy provided answers to.

A question about the reaction from the Trade was asked and it was reported that an email had been received from the Trade in support of the amendments.

One question from a Member centred around delegation in amendment 3 of the report and following discussions by Members of the Committee, the Assistant Director Operations Strategy proposed a slightly amended version which the Committee were in agreement with.

Delegated decision:

It was agreed that the Licensing and Safety Committee considered and adopted the following amendment (1, 2 and 3) to the existing emission standard and recommended to Full Council that amendment (1, 2 and 3) be approved. Amendment 3 was slightly amended as to what had been proposed in the Licensing and Safety Committee report included in the agenda packs:-

For existing vehicle licence proprietors with a non-complaint vehicle:

1.    A vehicle proprietor of a hackney carriage and private hire vehicle licence that is due for renewal after the 1 January 2025 which is non-compliant with emission standards (EURO 4 Petrol vehicles and EURO 6 diesel vehicles) is permitted to make an application to renew the vehicle licence and provided the vehicle passes its compliance test it will be issued with a 12-month vehicle licence. The vehicle licence would be granted subject to a condition that the non-compliant vehicle is removed from the fleet and replaced with a Euro 4 or 6 compliant vehicle by the 31 December 2025.

2.    To delegate powers to the Head of Public Protection/Licensing Unit Manager and/or the Deputy Licensing Officer to suspend any vehicle licence that has been issued after the 1 January 2025 where the vehicle proprietor(s) have not complied with the condition to replace the non-compliant vehicle with a compliant vehicle by the 31 December 2025.

3.    In the event that a scheduled committee meeting of the Licensing & Safety Committee & Full Council would not permit a change. Delegation to the Assistant Director of Operations, Head of Public Protection/Licensing Unit Manager in written agreement with the Chair of the Licensing and Safety Committee to make amendments to Council Policy that relates to the transitional arrangements for existing vehicle proprietors who own non-compliant (emission standard) vehicles to enable expedient access to the clean taxi fund if it becomes available. Any decisions made would be reported in the Operational Report at the next meeting of the Licensing and Safety Committee.