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Apologies for Absence Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Stuart Brown, Councillor Ben Swann and Councillor Rajah Ghosh.
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Declarations of Members' Interests Minutes: There were no declarations of interest. |
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Minutes of Meeting held on 29 July 2024 RECOMMENDED that the minutes of the meeting held on 29 July 2024 be approved as a correct record. Minutes: The minutes of the meeting held on 29 July 2024 were agreed as a correct record. |
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Purpose To consider the current statement of licensing policy for the hackney carriage and private hire trade in Portsmouth so far as they relate to Zero Emission Capability of licensed vehicles and determine whether an amendment to the existing policy is required.
RECOMMENDED that the Licensing Committee 1. Note the contents of the report; and 2. Determine whether any amendments should be made to the current implementation date of 1 January 2025 for newly licensed vehicles to be Zero Emission Capable. Additional documents: Minutes: Nickii Humphreys, Licensing Manager, presented the report, the purpose of which was to consider the current statement of licensing policy for the hackney carriage and private hire trade in Portsmouth in so far as they relate to zero emission capability of licensed vehicles and to determine whether an amendment to the existing policy was required.
The Licensing Manager offered three options to the Licensing Committee: a) to retain the current policy b) to set back the date for a further five years. c) remove any reference in the policy to zero emission.
The Licensing Manager drew members' attention to the Director of Finance comments, about the potential issues should the policy be retained as it was and the inherent risk that vehicles may choose to licence elsewhere.
Members' questions In response to Members' questions, officers clarified the following:
· The recently announced £4million in funding mentioned in the report would be for on-street charging open to everyone. This was being rolled out over the next three years, and as yet it was not known if this would include rapid charging points.
· Option C would go against the underlying principles of the city which was clearly focused on making the city greener and reducing emissions.
· The City had a Ministerial direction to implement the Clean Air Zone (CAZ) which was funded through central government. There would be a number of risks, not just financial, in taking option C.
· The licensing budget relating to private hire and hackney carriage licensing had an annual income of around £250k. Should there be a policy that took a disproportionate stance on electric vehicles to other local authorities, there would be a risk that new/existing vehicles would licence elsewhere drifting from Portsmouth to other local authorities.
· Central Government funded the rapid chargers of which there were 6 in the city, some of which had only recently opened. They were initially solely for taxis, but they had been underutilised so had been opened up to the general public. This would be reviewed, should there be an increase in taxi-trade usage.
· In terms of assisting the trade to transition their vehicles, there had been no funding from central government. Funding provided through government grants to the taxi trade to upgrade their vehicles to enable them to be compliant with the CAZ was £0.5million but this did not mean they necessarily had to upgrade to electric vehicles, they had to upgrade to Euro 6 vehicles as a minimum.
Licensed Trade views Mr Sutherland understood the necessity to move towards zero emissions but observed the infrastructure was not in place and the cost of moving to zero emission vehicles was prohibitive to the trade. He agreed there would be a migration of licensed vehicles to other authorities and once this started it would be hard to stop. Mr Sutherland felt the sensible option would be option B as in five years the situation could be reviewed again.
Mr Bodolai agreed with Mr Sutherland. He noted the nearest super chargers for electric ... view the full minutes text for item 14. |