Agenda and minutes

Members noted the appointment of Councillor Andrew Wood as the Vice-Chairman of the Licensing Committee for the Municipal Year 2023/2024.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Joseph Baum, Tony Green, Jonathan Rush, Nick Southworth and Gurinder Wadhwa.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meetings held on 11 April 2023 and 17 May 2023.

The Minutes of the Meetings held on 11 April 2023 and 17 May 2023 were both agreed as accurate records.

The Committee received a report on the update on Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Enforcement. The report was for the Committee to note. The report focussed on the enforcement activity for the reference period 1st October 2022 to 31st March 2023. The report provides an overview of how the Policy is applied in practice, with a summary of application outcomes, complaints, investigations, and other enforcement activity carried out by the Council’s Licensing Service. 

The report highlighted the following information for the reference period:

·       2188 hackney carriage and private hire vehicles were licensed with the Buckinghamshire Council as at 31^st March 2023. 

·       1330 licence applications for vehicles licences were received, of this, 618 applications were for new licences and 712 were applications to renew existing licences.

·       21 vehicle licence applications were refused as the vehicles concerned failed to meet the Council’s Policy requirement in relation to prohibiting category S insurance write offs.

·       86 vehicle licence applications were rejected for a variety of reasons, but mainly as incorrect information had been provided on the application forms, incorrect supporting documents had been provided or the applicant had failed to pay the application fee. Encouragingly the number of vehicle applications being rejected has fallen significantly, by way of comparison during the first six months following the introduction of the new Policy in September 2021, 212 applications had beenrejected.

·       2916 hackney carriage and private hire drivers were licensed with Buckinghamshire Council as of 31^st March 2023.

·       The Council received 737 driver licence applications, 457 from new drivers and 280 from drivers applying to renew. Nine applications were refused on the basis that the Officers were not satisfied that the applicants could be considered fit and proper to be licensed. Sixty-six rejected applications were attributed to applicants failing to pay the application fee at the end of the onlineapplication.  This rejection process for non-payment of fees is fully automated and requires no input from council officers.

·       On 31st March 2023, 215 private hire vehicle operators were licenced with Buckinghamshire Council.

·       The Council had received 37 new and 12 renewal operator applications. Twenty applications had been rejected mainly due to applicants submitting multiple incomplete applications.

·       There were 163 recorded complaints received by the Licensing Service, the main reasons for complaint were behaviour, driving standards and parking. In addition to the complaints, sixty investigations were instigated in respect of drivers and 14 in respect of operators. Many of the investigations had been completed. Following an investigation, five drivers had their licences revoked. Sixteen drivers had their licences suspended.

·       349 vehicles were suspended for a variety of reasons.  In accordance with legal provision, once served with a suspension notice, the vehicle proprietor had 21 days to rectify the issue before the suspension took effect. For more serious matters, vehicle licences could be suspended with immediate effect or revoked. Licences suspended with immediate effect would be deemed revoked after two months if the issue of concern had not been satisfactorily resolved. Thirty-two  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Committee received a report on the new Buckinghamshire Council draft Scrap Metal Licensing Policy. The determination of applications and fee setting in relation to scrap metal is an Executive function of the Council, with the power to grant licences and take enforcement, delegated to Officers. The policy would also provide guidance on the application process, a brief overview of relevant legislation and links to Government guidance. The Licensing Authority was required to consider and determine applications for licences relating to scrap metal in line with the relevant legislation.

Since becoming a unitary authority, fee levels had been harmonised and the licensing team had been working to consolidate records and develop working practices that were consistent across the new Council area. This had included finding new ways to work collaboratively with other departments such as planning, and with partners, such as TVP, Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service and the Environment Agency, in order to carry out more effective compliance checks and intelligence gathering.

All scrap metal dealers must obtain a licence from the local authority in order to carry on their business. It is an offence to carry on a business without a licence. The offence was punishable on summary conviction with an unlimited fine.

A scrap metal dealer is defined in the Act as someone carrying on a business which consisted wholly or in part of buying and selling scrap metal, whether or not the metal was sold in the form in which it was bought.

Under the Act, scrap metal is defined as any old, waste, or discarded metal or metallic material and any product, article or assembly which was made from or contained metal and is broken, worn out or regarded by its last holder as having reached the end of its useful life.

There are two types of scrap metal licences as described in the legislation and guidance.  These is a site licence and a mobile collector’s licence. Both licence types lasted for a period of three years.

The Council currently licenced 15 scrap metal dealers, broken down into 8 site licences and 7 mobile collector licences. A dealer could only hold one type of licence in any one council authority area. A public register of licenced scrap metal dealers is maintained by the Environment Agency and the Council is required to provide the appropriate information on all scrap metal licences issued in our area to the Environmental Agency for this purpose.

Members were invited to ask questions of Officers. The Chairman asked for clarification on paragraph 2.7, whether metal stolen from historic sites was likely to be presented for sale in a damaged state and therefore fell under the definition. It was confirmed that it was as defined in the report.

The Chairman asked about the cost of the licence and the cost to the Council to manage the process. The Licensing Officer informed the Committee that there were a very small number of licences issued by the Council and therefore there was a harmonised  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Tuesday 18 July 2023 at 6.30pm.

It was noted that the date of the next meeting was Tuesday 18 July 2023 at 6.30pm.