Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Amanda Hampsey, Daniel Hampsey, Paul Kennedy and Dougie Philand.

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 Applicants opted to proceed by way of audio call and Morgan and Hayley Romilly joined the meeting by telephone.

 

Stephen McIntyre-Stewart, Objector also opted to proceed by way of audio call and joined the meeting by telephone.

 

All of the other objectors (Mark Franks, Paul Dornan, Colin McNeill and Kimberley Clerk) were unable to attend today and had asked Mr McIntyre-Stewart to speak on their behalf.

 

The Chair then outlined the procedure that would be followed and invited the Applicants to speak in support of their application.  He advised that as the same parties were present for this hearing as the previous one held at 2.00 pm, the Committee would take account of the information presented before.

 

APPLICANT

 

Mr Romilly advised that this application was for a Taxi Car Licence for a 9 seater vehicle (registration number T500 WLF), capable of carrying 8 passengers.  He said that it was fully diesel at this time.  The sole purpose of this vehicle, as well as supporting the others, would be to stay on the Loch side.  He referred to the LVSA survey report and everything referring to Helensburgh and Lomond and to Mr McIntyre-Stewart advising at the previous hearing of the need to serve Arrochar, Luss and Tarbet.  He said that you could constantly see West Dunbartonshire cars going up and down so some did provide a service there.  He commented that Mr McIntyre-Stewart had previously referred to the difficulties of serving an area 35 minutes up the road from where a vehicle was located.  Mr Romilly advised that if this plate was granted they had contracts in place up the Loch side and that the vehicle would permanently reside in Arrochar.  He said that he and his wife were considering a move to Arrochar. 

 

He said that he had received massive support for this vehicle from businesses such as Luss Estates, Lennox of Lomond and the Golf Club.  Mr Romilly advised that he had also received fantastic support from the Three Villages Hall Committee.

 

He advised that the vehicle may appear in Helensburgh on occasions but the sole purpose would be to be based in Arrochar and serve the people of the three villages from there.  He referred to regularly getting customers looking for transport from Arrochar train station to distances of less than half a mile and that it could not be justified sending a car up there for a £3 or £4 hire.  He said it seemed that the people of these villages had been forgotten about.

 

He said there was huge support for a taxi dedicated to these villages.  He referred to the local bus service being infrequent and did not allow locals and tourists to move about.  He said this 8 seater vehicle would be capable of carrying people between businesses and he believed the Council would have received an email about how much this service was needed in the area.

 

QUESTIONS FROM OBJECTOR

 

Mr McIntyre-Stewart asked Mr Romilly if he would intend charging a call out fee and, if not, how would he make his business model work.  Mr Romilly advised that he did not intend to charge a call out fee.  He said the vehicle would remain in the area and that the driver would live there so the vehicle would have a permanent base in the village.

 

Mr McIntyre-Stewart referred to Mr Romilly’s plans to move to Arrochar and asked how that would work for him covering the whole of Helensburgh and Lomond.  He said it did not make a lot of sense.  Mr Romilly said he would use his vehicles wherever they were needed and that if wanted to operate dead mileage he would.

 

Mr McIntyre-Stewart referred to Mr Romilly saying he operated a 24 hour service and asked if he had received many complaints about calls going unanswered.  Mr Romilly said that he always returns calls to customers.  He referred to loss of mobile signal at times when driving.

 

OBJECTOR

 

Mr McIntyre-Stewart said the main point was that as a plate was granted at the previous hearing this brought the number of plates for the Helensburgh and Lomond up to 48.  He said that business in Helensburgh and Lomond had dramatically reduced compared to pre Covid times and he advised that it was likely to fall further due to the cost of living crisis.  He said that he was seeing taxi drivers dropping out.  He said that what was needed was competition and that he believed granting another plate to an already operating business, instead of a separate individual, would stifle competition.

 

QUESTIONS FROM APPLICANT

 

Mr Romilly advised that he had no questions.

 

MEMBERS’ QUESTIONS

 

Councillor Blair asked the Applicant how many taxis in total there were in Arrochar and if the area was now up to capacity.  Mr Romilly advised that as far as he was aware there were no taxis operating in the area.  He referred to a survey carried out by the Three Villages Hall Committee, which stated they found it extremely difficult to get a taxi and that there was no taxi service based in Arrochar or Tarbet.  He referred to the LVSA report saying there was 48 taxis and said this was heavily focussed on Helensburgh.

 

Mr McIntyre-Stewart advised of having one taxi for the Arrochar and Tarbet area.  He said the difficulty people had was not about getting a taxi, it was about not getting a taxi without being charged a call out.  He said his business was affected by this.

 

SUMMING UP

 

Objector

 

Mr McIntyre-Stewart referred to Mr Romilly indicating that he intended to work in the Arrochar area and that he understood he had work coming out from some  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.