The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions
were made. Thereafter he outlined the
procedure that would be followed and invited the Applicant to speak in support
of her application.
Applicant
Mrs MacEachen advised that she had thought about working in
the taxi business for a few years and when the opportunity came up to apply for
a Taxi Driver Licence she had took it and has loved driving taxis ever
since. She advised that she was aware of
someone giving up his plate due to ill health and that she was interested in
applying for her own plate which would bring greater security to herself and
her family. She advised that work was
steady if you were prepared to wait at the rank.
She referred to the 2013 survey which had stated that there
was no demand for more taxis. She
advised that although there was a lot of taxi licences issued a considerable
number of the plate holders only drove their taxis on Friday and Saturday
nights and that there were a lot of licences not being used full time. She referred to more houses being built in
the outlying areas leading to a greater demand for taxis. She advised that any overspill at the taxi
rank moved quickly. She advised that it
was important to provide this service to tourists to encourage them to stay in
Oban which in turn would generate more business for other tourist services.
Members’ Questions
Councillor MacDougall referred to the survey and referred to
difficulties he had experienced getting a taxi back to the ferry and advised
that he did not agree with the statement that there were too many taxis. Mr Reppke replied by advising that
consultants carried out this study and it was established that there was no
significant unmet demand. He referred to
a lot of business being carried out via telephone requests.
Councillor Trail referred to the survey advising that taxis
had to wait as long as 25 minutes for a fair at the rank and asked Mrs
MacEachen to comment. Mrs MacEachen
advised that you did get quiet days but usually she did not have to wait any
longer that 10 or 11 minutes. She
confirmed that she was quite steady when she was at the rank.
Councillor Taylor sought and
received confirmation from Ms Connelly that there were currently 47 operator
licences issued in the Oban area. Mr
Reppke advised that it was at the Members’ discretion to depart from the
findings of the survey and that he would expect them only to do this with sound
reasons.
Councillor Freeman sought and
received confirmation from Ms MacEachen that she bought her taxi a month ago.
Councillor Currie sought and
received confirmation from Mr Reppke that to grant an operator licence would
mean more taxi vehicles on the street but not more drivers.
Councillor Blair asked what
the gender balance was of taxi operators.
Mr Reppke advised that he did know of the exact split but there were
more men than women.
Councillor Trail sought and
received confirmation from Mr Reppke that this application was advertised in
the Oban Area Office. Mr Reppke
confirmed that this application and another recent application for a taxi
operator licence had not been objected to.
Ms MacEachen confirmed to
Councillor Robert MacIntyre that this would be a full time job for her.
Ms MacEachen confirmed to
Councillor Kinniburgh that she was granted a taxi driver licence on 14 April
2015.
Summing Up
Mr MacKay advised that he was
a founder partner in Lorn taxis and has been in business for 8 years. He stated that he had lost 12 taxis and was now
unable to cope with the demand. He
advised that he struggles every day to allocate his drivers and that sometimes
he has to seek assistance from other companies and in doing so loses business. He advised that he needed more taxis in his
company or it would fail and he hoped that Ms MacEachen could be granted her
licence as this would hopefully help his business to improve.
When asked both Ms MacEachen
and Mr MacKay confirmed that they had received a fair hearing.
Debate
Councillor McCuish advised that
of the 47 taxis they were very rarely seen unless it was a Friday or Saturday
night. He confirmed that there was a
need for more service and more taxis and that he supported the application. He stated that things had moved on for the
better in Oban since the survey was carried out in 2013.
Councillor Robert MacIntyre
advised that Ms MacEachen had a clean licence and that he had no objection to
granting this application and that she should be given a chance.
Decision
Agreed to grant a Taxi
Operator Licence to Ms MacEachen and noted that she would be advised of this in
writing within the next 7 days.
(Reference: Report by Head of
Governance and Law, submitted)
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