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.

(c)          Where it is possible that a fair-minded and informed observer, having considered the facts would conclude that there was a real possibility that the Member might be predetermined or biased the Member should declare their predetermination or bias and then leave the meeting while that item is considered.

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 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 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 5 March 2021 and must be related to an item on the agenda.  Each speaker has a maximum of three minutes to speak.

No one had registered to speak in the Public Session.

The Licensing Officer introduced the report which fed back on the public consultation on the draft revisions to the current Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy to incorporate requirements made necessary by the DfT Statutory Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Standards.  She referred Members to Appendix I in the report which set-out the proposed changes to the policy.  The Licensing Officer said that following the consultation, which ran from 25 January 2021 to 19 February 2021, no responses had been received.

Resolved:

(1)      That Members noted there were no responses to the public consultation on the draft revisions to be incorporated into the Council’s current Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy, as required by the DfT Statutory Taxi and Private Hire Vehicle Standards.

(2)      That the revisions to the policy to become effective as of 15 March 2021.