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The decisions as the council's minutes record them. A plain-language summary follows once it has been written.
AGREED that in the exceptional circumstances, where no Council-appointed garage exists to issue certificates of compliance to hackney carriages and private hire vehicles, the Licensing Committee extend the temporary deviation from the Council’s Policy until its next meeting by allowing the submission of a standard M.O.T. certificate issued by a DVSA-approved garage in place of a certificate of compliance in the following circumstances: • With an application to license a new or replacement vehicle that is older than one year, provided that the M.O.T. certificate was issued in the month prior to the application for the licence being submitted to the Council, and then subsequently no later than the expiry date of the M.O.T. certificate; • Prior to the first anniversary of the date of first registration of any licensed vehicle that is less than one year old, and then subsequently no later than the expiry date of the M.O.T. certificate; • No later than the expiry date of any M.O.T. certificate issued in respect of a licensed vehicle; and • Prior to a licence being reinstated after it has been suspended due to concerns about its fitness or the vehicle becoming temporarily unlicensed due to involvement in an accident, where the M.O.T. certificate must have been issued after the date of the suspension or accident, as applicable. The Committee also AGREED to consider long-term options for the testing of licensed vehicles at its next meeting.
1.1 The Chair welcomed Members and Officers to the meeting of the General Licensing Committee. 1.2 Apologies were received from Councillor Liam Cowles.
2.1 The Chair declared a personal, non-prejudicial interest in agenda item 4 as a DVSA tester. 2.2 No other interests were declared.
3.1 The minutes were confirmed as a true and accurate record.
Decision as recorded
AGREED that in the exceptional circumstances, where no Council-appointed garage exists to issue certificates of compliance to hackney carriages and private hire vehicles, the Licensing Committee extend the temporary deviation from the Council’s Policy until its next meeting by allowing the submission of a standard M.O.T. certificate issued by a DVSA-approved garage in place of a certificate of compliance in the following circumstances: • With an application to license a new or replacement vehicle that is older than one year, provided that the M.O.T. certificate was issued in the month prior to the application for the licence being submitted to the Council, and then subsequently no later than the expiry date of the M.O.T. certificate; • Prior to the first anniversary of the date of first registration of any licensed vehicle that is less than one year old, and then subsequently no later than the expiry date of the M.O.T. certificate; • No later than the expiry date of any M.O.T. certificate issued in respect of a licensed vehicle; and • Prior to a licence being reinstated after it has been suspended due to concerns about its fitness or the vehicle becoming temporarily unlicensed due to involvement in an accident, where the M.O.T. certificate must have been issued after the date of the suspension or accident, as applicable. The Committee also AGREED to consider long-term options for the testing of licensed vehicles at its next meeting.
4.1 The SLO presented the report and following, responded to Members’ questions as follows: • The Council did not submit a bid, but it was something that Officers could explore. In addition, consideration could be given to including garages outside of Torfaen in any future tender process. However, when the licence plates were issued they were delivered to the garage by hand for fitting and so the location and travel time would be a relevant factor. It was an opportunity for garages looking to expand their business. It proposed to bring the item back in November to look at options.. • After not being able to attract bidders the first time around, a further tender process could be undertaken and then look at alternative options later, if no garage was appointment. Officers would not want to run a tender process every six months. • An alternative option could be that Officer’s carrying out the inspections. However, the taxi licensing service should be funded by fees and so inspections would need to be factored into the fees. Full considerations would be included in the report in November. • The only comments they had received from the trade around the current arrangements were them saying that they liked them, as they were able to go to any MOT garage. No negative feedback had been received and no issues had occurred as part of the lower level requirements. They were still carrying out random enforcement checks with Gwent Police. No deterioration in standards had been noted. • All DVSA approved garages were written to in February. • They had not received feedback from garages as to why they were not bidding into the process. There were no clear reasons as to why they were not. • Torfaen had 14 wheelchair accessible licenced vehicles which was not a huge number. The vehicles were not always working and the Licensing team needed to work with operators to see how they could be incentivised to improve availability. There was already discount given for licences granted to wheelchair accessible vehicles but this had not necessarily encouraged more, so consideration needed to be given in order to increase the numbers and make sure they were available when in demand. The numbers were not a knock-on effect from the temporary change in the vehicle testing arrangements. 4.2 The Committee AGREED that in the exceptional circumstances, where no Council-appointed garage exists to issue certificates of compliance to hackney carriages and private hire vehicles, the Licensing Committee extend the temporary deviation from the Council’s Policy until its next meeting by allowing the submission of a standard M.O.T. certificate issued by a DVSA-approved garage in place of a certificate of compliance in the following circumstances: • With an application to license a new or replacement vehicle that is older than one year, provided that the M.O.T. certificate was issued in the month prior to the application for the licence being submitted to the Council, and then subsequently no later than the expiry date of the M.O.T. certificate; • Prior to the first anniversary of the date of first registration of any licensed vehicle that is less than one year old, and then subsequently no later than the expiry date of the M.O.T. certificate; • No later than the expiry date of any M.O.T. certificate issued in respect of a licensed vehicle; and • Prior to a licence being reinstated after it has been suspended due to concerns about its fitness or the vehicle becoming temporarily unlicensed due to involvement in an accident, where the M.O.T. certificate must have been issued after the date of the suspension or accident, as applicable. The Committee also AGREED to consider long-term options for the testing of licensed vehicles at its next meeting.
5.1 The date of the next meeting was confirmed to take place on 28 November 2024. 5.2 The meeting ended at 10.25am.
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