Issue - meetings

The Licensing and Enforcement Service Manager introduced his report and outlined that the key purpose of the hackney carriage and private hire licensing regimes was to ensure public safety. He said that the proposed policy to mandate card payment facilities in all licensed vehicles would help ensure that people would be able to pay for a hackney carriage or private hire vehicle and get home safely. He therefore asked that the members of the Licensing Committee scrutinise the consultation responses and the draft Policy.

The Licensing and Enforcement Service Manager said that the East Herts licensed trade were surveyed regarding the use of card payment facilities in March 2023. He said that 97 responses were received and 95% of the respondents already operated card payment facilities. He drew Members’ attention to the survey results contained in Appendix A of the report.

The Licensing and Enforcement Service Manager said that the licensed trade were formally consulted in May 2023 regarding the Policy to mandate the provision of card payment facilities.  He said that the consultation document included the proposed wording for the Policy and a link to an online survey to respond. He said that when the survey closed on 31 May 2023, 34 responses had been received, and drew Members’ attention to the consultation wording and responses at Appendix B of the report.

The Licensing and Enforcement Service Manager said that several possible issues with the Policy were raised in the responses, and these are addressed at paragraph 3.6 of the report. He said that in addition to the online survey responses, 2 licensed drivers sent in additional emails which raised the four points shown at paragraph 3.9 of the report. He drew Members’ attention to these emails which could be seen in Appendix C of the report and raised similar issues to those addressed in paragraph 3.6.

The Licensing and Enforcement Service Manager said that overall, 76% of the responses to the formal consultation were supportive of the Policy and that 94% already had card facilities. He said that this was a very similar figure to that found through the informal survey.

The Licensing and Enforcement Service Manager advised Members that the final proposed wording for the policy was amended following the consultation, and that this could be found at Appendix D of the report. He said that where the Policy, if implemented, would require changes to other parts of the existing Policies this was also highlighted in Appendix D. He said that the Licensing Committee’s comments will be passed to the Executive Member for Planning and Growth for her consideration prior to a report going to the Executive.

Councillor Marlow said that he was generally in favour of the policy, and asked if it could be legislated that fares could still be paid in cash should a passenger wish.

The Licensing and Enforcement Service Manager said that this was possible.

Councillor Willcocks asked if a working card payment machine would be included in a taxi vehicle check.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 200