Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Lorna Douglas, Jean Moffat and Sandy Taylor.

There were no declarations of interest.

Report by Head of Legal and Regulatory Support

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting.  In line with recent legislation for Civic Government Hearings, the parties (and any representatives) were given the options for participating in the meeting today.  The options available were by Video Call, by Audio Call or by written submission.  For this hearing the Applicant opted to proceed by way of Audio Call and he joined the meeting by telephone.

The Chair outlined the procedure that would be followed and invited the Applicant to speak in support of his application.

APPLICANT

Mr Ferris advised that he was currently living in Rothesay since moving his family there in July.  He said that they’d had a holiday home there for over 20 years and they now wanted to move there from Renfrew for a fresh start.  He commented that his daughter had enrolled at Rothesay Academy and was doing well.  He said that they had still to sell their house in Renfrew and that they currently had an application on hold for a shared ownership house with Fyne Homes. 

He advised that when he applied for this Taxi Operator Licence he was advised by the Licensing Team that due to Covid it may be some time before the application could be brought to a hearing.  He was told that it would be acceptable for him to apply for the licence for his personal car, which was a Kia Rio, and then apply for a change of vehicle if the application was successful.  He explained that it was his intention to drive a wheelchair accessible vehicle and that he had sourced a Citroen Berlingo which was rear loading and had a fixed ramp.  He advised that he has been a taxi driver for 20 years and that he regularly picked up passengers from Glasgow Airport.  He said he was used to picking up passengers who required a wheelchair accessible taxi.

Mr Ferris indicated that before he was a taxi driver, he was a private hire driver and that over all those years there has never been any complaints about him.  He said that he had a credit card machine so was able to take payments by card.  He advised that to his knowledge, there were no wheelchair accessible taxis on Bute. 

He said that he had approached other taxi owners but as they had no shifts he was looking to start up on his own.  He referred to demand at the taxi rank and commented that from observing the rank he could see there was demand late in the afternoon and in the evening when people returned to the island.  He commented that demand was also higher at the weekends.  He advised that he felt there would be enough work to go round on the island.

MEMBERS’ QUESTIONS

Councillor Kinniburgh referred to Mr Ferris applying for a taxi operator licence for his Kia Rio and indicating that if his application was successful he would change his vehicle to a wheelchair accessible Citroen Berlingo.  He sought clarification from the Council’s Solicitor on the process that would be undertaken to deal with this proposal.  Mr McMillan explained that if Mr Ferris’ application was successful he could then make an application for a substitution.  He said this was quite a common thing to do if a taxi operator wished to change from an old car to a new car.  He advised that a substitution application would normally be dealt with administratively.

Councillor Kinniburgh asked if the Committee were minded to grant the licence today, would it be possible for a condition to be attached stating that the licence had to be used for a wheelchair accessible vehicle.   Mr McMillan confirmed that the Committee had two options.  Such a condition could be attached or the Committee could receive an undertaking from the Applicant to do as he planned.

Councillor Trail commented that taxis across the country were finding it very difficult to make a living at the present time.  He asked Mr Ferris why he thought he had a business case in Rothesay that could support him and his family.  Mr Ferris referred to there being no wheelchair accessible vehicles on the island at the moment.  He advised that he had been keeping an eye on the rank and that he was aware of the times when there was demand. He advised that at the airport he always made a point of working at the busiest times when demand was at its highest.  He also pointed out that he had noticed that the property market on Bute has gone ‘crazy’ with properties that had previously been unable to be sold now gone.  He commented that more people have wanted to move over to the island during the second half of this year.

Councillor Trail asked Mr Ferris if he would be working as an individual or if he would make use of the systems used by taxi companies.  Mr Ferris advised that initially he would work on his own.  He said that he would pick up passengers from the rank and then hand them a business card with his contact details on it so that he could grow his business.  He commented that he was not sure what the policy in Argyll and Bute was for taxis using Uber.  He advised that only private hire operators could use Uber in the Renfrewshire Council area.

Councillor Kinniburgh sought and received confirmation from Mr Ferris that he had renewed his taxi driver licence with Renfrewshire Council in November for a further 2 years.

Councillor Kinniburgh referred to the taxi survey carried out by LVSA and the outcome of the report which concluded that there was no unmet demand for taxis in the Bute and Cowal area.  He asked Mr Ferris to comment on these findings and explain why he thought that the demand was there.  Mr Ferris confirmed that he had read the report and that one thing that had stood out for him was the waiting time at the rank for Rothesay was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.