Agenda item

The Chair of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee, Councillor Duncan Smith, will present the report.

The Leader indicated that Mr Meyer, of Rickshaw Revolution, had approached him before the meeting requesting that he ask a question at the meeting. The Leader said he had been minded to agree to this but as Mr Meyer was not present at the meeting for this agenda item that would not be possible.

The Leader invited Councillor Smith, as Chair of Overview and Scrutiny to address Cabinet. He outlined the contents of the report and highlighted that the call-in of the decision had focused on the decision-making process as opposed to taking a view on whether rickshaws should be licensed in Cheltenham. He made the following points :

• The failure of Cabinet to make their intent clear by taking a clear decision undermined their intent and created uncertainty as to the council’s position. Cabinet should agree a clear recommendation in favour or against changing the current policy and refer the matter to full Council.
• From the evidence gathered at the call-in if Cabinet were minded to defer the decision on the grounds of safety issues they need to support this with a clear and specific statement about exactly what these concerns relate to so that they can be addressed by potential applicants in any subsequent applications
• The Chief Executive should look at the process and consider where practice can be improved to ensure that members of the public are kept well informed and do not suffer unnecessary delays.
• There should be clarity of aims and desired outcomes for the applicant and this should be remedied by a clear decision being taken by Cabinet with referral to Council for approval.
• O&S were concerned that this report had not been brought to an earlier meeting of Cabinet given that the report had been finalised in early February

In response the Cabinet Member Housing and Safety observed that in his view the report did not reflect the O&S call in meeting. He explained that despite the criticism regarding the length of time taken and the manner in which the issue of licensing rickshaws had been dealt with, he was confident that it had been an open, honest and professional process. Officers had been diligent in their research in drawing up a draft policy. In terms of the safety issues there had been a number of cabinet reports and a public consultation but there were a variety of differing schemes, licensed and un-licensed. A major issue had been the complex nature of the statutory legislation which was effectively inadequate for the licensing of Hackney Carriage Rickshaws. He emphasised that rickshaws could operate in the town without a licence on a contract basis. He reaffirmed Cabinet’s commitment to supporting businesses and entrepreneurs within the boundaries of the legislation.

The Cabinet Member Housing and Safety reminded those present of the resolution made at the December 2012 Cabinet meeting which was to “defer a decision on the licensing of rickshaws in Cheltenham until the outcome of the taxi and private hire licensing law reform review by the Law Commission is published in 2013/14” He then referred to an interim statement published on 9 April “During consultation many stakeholders complained about vehicles operating at the fringes of licensing, or outside licensing altogether. Pedicabs and stretch limousines are two examples that we recommend bringing clearly within the scope of taxi and private hire regulation, such that they may be controlled as necessary” It continues to state that “the Law Commission plan to publish a final report with our recommendations and a draft bill by late 2013”.

On a procedural note the Chief Executive intervened and explained that should Cabinet wish to have a policy this would have to be submitted to Council for approval. If Cabinet did not wish to have a policy this decision would not need to be submitted to Council. However, he stated that any member of the Council was able to submit a motion to Council.

Cabinet Members agreed that it was important for the council to provide a coherent policy and this should be supported by government legislation. The proposed resolution was therefore explicit in that it would not licence rickshaws within the limitations of the current legislation. This did not however prevent the operation of rickshaws on a private basis.

The Chair of Overview & Scrutiny stated that he was now happy that Cabinet was discharging its duty correctly but regretted that this had not been done at the December 2012 meeting. He emphasised that the O & S report was cross-party and the purposes of the call in was to examine how the decision was taken without taking a view on whether rickshaws should be licensed.

The Leader of the Council stated that this was a positive way forward. He recalled that the applicant, Mr Meyer, had said on a previous occasion that the draft policy devised by officers would be unworkable and in this respect it was agreed important to wait for the legislation.

RESOLVED

1.   The proposed draft policy presented to Cabinet for consideration at 11 December should not be adopted.

2.   The issue should be reconsidered when the outcome of the taxi and private hire licensing law reform review by the Law Commission is published.