To approve the Minutes of the Meeting held on 27 January 2015 (Minute Nos. 447 - 451) as a correct record.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 27 January 2015 (Minute Nos. 447 – 451) were taken as read, approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

The Council operates a scheme of public speaking at meetings of the General Licensing Committee.  Requests to speak at the meeting must be registered with Democratic Services by 4.30pm on Friday 3 July 2015 and must be related to an item on the agenda.  Each speaker has a maximum of three minutes to speak.

There were no questions.

Councillors should not act or take decisions in order to gain financial or other material benefits for  themselves or their spouse, civil partner or person with whom they are living with as a spouse or civil partner.  They must declare and resolve any interests and relationships.

The Chairman will ask Members if they have any interests to declare in respect of items on this agenda, under the following headings:

(a)          Disclosable Pecuniary Interests (DPI) under the Localism Act 2011.  The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared.  After declaring a DPI, the Member must leave the meeting and not take part in the discussion or vote.  This applies even if there is provision for public speaking.

(b)          Disclosable Non Pecuniary (DNPI) under the Code of Conduct adopted by the Council in May 2012.  The nature as well as the existence of any such interest must be declared.  After declaring a DNPI interest, the Member may stay, speak and vote on the matter.

Advice to Members:  If any Councillor has any doubt about the existence or nature of any DPI or DNPI which he/she may have in any item on this agenda, he/she should seek advice from the Director of Corporate Services as Monitoring Officer, the Head of Legal or from other Solicitors in Legal Services as early as possible, and in advance of the Meeting.

No interests were declared.

The Chairman introduced the report which set out, as part of the ongoing review and management of the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Service, recommended revisions to the number of penalty points awarded for infringements of the Council’s Local Conditions.  The Chairman referred to Appendix I which displayed the current points in blue and the proposed points in red.  She further explained that if 12 or more points were accrued in a three-year period, the driver would be referred to the Licensing Committee.

In response to a question, the Hackney Carriage Inspector advised that checks were carried out on the drivers and vehicles at least once a week, and he was able to enforce whether he was ‘on duty’ or not.

The Commissioning and Open Spaces Manager reminded Members that if they saw anything that might contravene the Council’s Local Conditions to contact the Hackney Carriage Inspector, with both the plate number and time.

In response to a Member who considered points for interfering with a taximeter should be higher than 9, and how this compared with other Local Authorities, the Hackney Carriage Inspector advised that this type of infringement was rare.  He stated that the Council’s points system was based on Ashford Borough Council’s system and Maidstone Borough Council had carried out a survey on the points system.  He further advised that  the smoking breach also applied to e-cigarettes.

Members supported the proposed changes.

Resolved:  That the proposed revisions to the penalty points scoring be approved.

The Chairman advised that the Commissioning and Open Spaces Manager and Hackney Carriage Inspector would be looking into the inclusion of an English written test for drivers, to be included within the Knowledge Test.  This would then be considered at the next General Licensing Committee on 21 January 2016.