Agenda item

The Applicant was in attendance.

The Licensing Officer outlined the background to the application as follows:

•          This was an application for the grant of a private hire driver licence seeking departure from Council Policy;

•          The Applicant required exemption from taking the Knowledge Test as he only carried out chauffeuring work;

•          All Applicants were required to take the Knowledge Test and a 75% pass mark was required for Private Hire Drivers;

•          The primary consideration was to determine whether the Applicant was a “fit and proper person”

•          Officers recommended that the application be refused in line with Council Policy but if the Committee were minded to grant the application, the Applicant would be required to:

o          Undertake the Gold Standard training;

o          Undertake an Immigration Right to Licence check;

o          Obtain a DVLA Mandate;

o          Obtain an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service Check.

The Applicant presented his case as follows:

•          He had been working for a chauffeuring firm for a year undertaking work for corporate clients such as TV production companies;

•          With the exception of work for Motion Club, most of the work was outside Bristol;

•          He would not require the information gained from undertaking the Knowledge Test in his job;

•          He circulated his job sheets from the last year to demonstrate that most of his work was away from Bristol;

•          The firm had 5 cars and 3 were Bristol plated and he wasn’t able to use the Bristol plated cars without a Bristol City Council licence.

In response to questioning, the Applicant:

•          Estimated that with the exception of the work for Motion Club, 70-75% of the work was outside of Bristol;

•          Confirmed that he had knowledge of hotels in Bristol as most of his work in the city was transporting clients from Bristol Airport to and from Bristol hotels;

•          Stated that he was reluctant to learn the information about pubs and streets in Bristol required for the Knowledge Test as he would not use this information in his job;

•          Confirmed that the vehicles used were executive cars;

•          Produced evidence of his training for the consideration of the Committee.

At this point in the meeting the Applicant and Licensing Officer withdrew from the meeting while the Committee considered the application.  They returned to the meeting to hear the decision.

RESOLVED - the Committee were satisfied that the Applicant could be treated as an exception to Council policy and be granted a licence without undertaking the Knowledge Test subject to:

(1)        an additional condition being attached to the licence to ensure he only engaged in “executive/chauffeur” work in an executive vehicle as defined by Council policy.

Section 51(2) of the Local Government Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 states that a district council may attach to the grant of a licence under this section such conditions as they may consider reasonably necessary;

(2)        the Applicant undertaking/obtaining the following:

a.         the Gold Standard training;

b.         an Immigration Right to Licence check;

c.         a DVLA Mandate;

d.         an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service Check.