Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Audrey Forrest 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 joined the meeting by telephone.  The Applicant’s Solicitor opted to proceed by way of video call and joined the meeting by MS Teams.  Additional paperwork was also submitted on behalf of the Applicant and this was contained within a Supplementary Agenda pack.

 

Police Scotland opted to proceed by way of audio call and Sgt Maginnis joined the meeting by telephone.

 

The Chair referred to a preliminary matter and advised that Police Scotland had requested the Committee take into account a number of matters that were considered “protected” in terms of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.  It was noted that the Committee may take into consideration evidence relating to protected matters where they were satisfied that justice could not be done except by admitting such evidence.

 

The Chair outlined the procedure that would be followed in this respect and invited Police Scotland to address the relevancy of the protected matters.

 

POLICE SCOTLAND

 

Sgt Maginnis said that the Applicant had a number of matters considered protected in terms of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.  She advised that it was the Chief Constable’s contention that justice could not be done without admitting these issues as they were relevant to this application.

 

The Chair then invited the Applicant’s Solicitor to ask Police Scotland questions and to address the relevancy of the protected matters to his application.

 

APPLICANT

 

Mrs MacLeod said that Mr Buchanan had no secrets but Sgt Maginnis had referred to matters which could be covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act.  She commented that she had listened to the latter part of the previous hearing and that more than one Councillor had referred to reformed character and matters that happened in the past.  She said that if the protected matters Police Scotland were taking about were spent then that was what they were and the purpose of the Rehabilitation of Offenders legislation was to allow a person to move on afresh and rehabilitate themselves.  She said she would speak later about Mr Buchanan’s character and to the fact that he was a well-known character in Dunoon and a driver for many years.  He was also a taxi driver for many years and the loss of this licence in 2017 would be spoken about later.  She advised that under the Rehabilitation of Offenders legislation that offence would also shortly become spent.  She asked the Committee to not look into the past and to not pay attention to matters now classed as spent.

 

The Chair invited Police Scotland to comment on the Applicant’s submission.  Sgt Maginnis advised that she had no comment to make.

 

The Chair then invited questions from Members.

 

MEMBERS’ QUESTIONS

 

Councillor McCuish asked Sgt Maginnis why she believed the Committee should see these convictions.  Sgt Maginnis said she believed they were relevant to someone driving a taxi.

 

Councillor Moffat said she thought the protected matters should be brought to the attention of the Committee.

 

Councillor Green said it would be helpful to ensure the Committee were coming to the fairest possible decision.

 

Councillor Colville also agreed that the Committee should see the protected matters and this was supported by Councillor Kinniburgh.

 

The Committee decided that the protected matters were relevant to the Application and a copy of a letter from Police Scotland was shared on screen and emailed to the Committee.

 

The Chair then outlined the hearing procedure that would be followed and invited the Applicant’s Solicitor to speak in support of the application.

 

APPLICANT

 

Mrs MacLeod advised that Mr Buchanan was a long standing resident of Dunoon.  He was 55 years old and had held a driving licence for over 31 years.  She referred to a spell in his life before his licence when he had a form of epilepsy.  He had recovered from that and she referred to a letter she had lodged from Mr Buchanan’s GP which confirmed that he’d had no seizures since 1992.  Mrs MacLeod commented that Police Scotland had mentioned in their correspondence, Mr Buchanan’s failure to declare any medical conditions.  She said that they were not aware of any other medical condition.  She advised that Mr Buchanan was not on any medication.  She said that he had held a taxi driver’s licence from Argyll and Bute Council for a period of over 13 years until this licence was suspended in 2017.  She advised that some Members may recall that this licence was suspended as a result of an extremely unfortunate incident in January 2015.  She explained that Mr Buchanan had been picking up a taxi client near the Co-op in Dunoon.  She said it was January and there was low sun.  She advised that a gentleman was staggering across the road and was hit by Mr Buchanan as the sunlight had prevented him from seeing the pedestrian. She advised that regrettably the gentleman in question had passed away.  She said that Mr Buchanan lost his driving licence for 3 years in 2017 and was given a community payback order.  She confirmed that Mr Buchanan carried out the community payback order and his driving licence was returned to him in August 2020.  She said that there had been no issues with his driving licence since then.

 

As well as being a taxi driver, Mrs MacLeod advised that Mr Buchanan was employed as a Shelf Stacking Supervisor with the Co-op.  She said that he has been employed by the Co-op for 15 years and that he participates in Co-op fundraising for the community and that he did a lot of good work for the community.  She advised that should the Committee be good enough to grant Mr Buchanan his licence he would not be giving  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.