Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Gordon Blair, Rory Colville, Mary-Jean Devon, George Freeman, Graham Archibald Hardie, Jean Moffat and Alastair Redman.

There were no declarations of interest.

Report by Head of Governance and Law

The Chair welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made.  He then outlined the procedure that would be followed and invited the Applicant to speak in support of his application.

APPLICANT

The Applicant’s Agent, Mr McCann, spoke on behalf of the Applicant.  He referred to Section 10(3A) of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 and advised that when considering an application for a private hire car the test to apply was whether or not this would lead to the over provision of private hire car services in the area.   He said that it was his understanding that there were 56 private hire car vehicles in Argyll and Bute.  He advised that he was unable to find out how many of these were within Helensburgh and Lomond.  He indicated that Mr Haddow had received 8,000 client enquiries in May and that this had now risen to 9,000 per month.  He advised that this led him to believe that there was currently an under provision and that the licence should be granted.  He said that the car which the licence was being sought for was a wheelchair accessible vehicle and that it was his understanding that there was only one which could currently be booked at the booking office.  He advised that there were 11 care homes in the area which regularly sought to hire a wheelchair accessible vehicle.  He further advised that a number of these hires had to be rejected as there was only one vehicle of that type at the moment and indicated there was a need for another vehicle.  He said that Mr Haddow was a fit and proper person and had no convictions.  He pointed out that he already had a taxi driver’s licence.  He said again that there was currently no over provision of private hire cars.  He said that the Act enabled the Committee to reject an application if they determined there was over provision but they did not have to do that.

Mr McCann then addressed the concerns raised by Objectors.  He advised that they referred to the last survey carried out which he assumed was the Halcrow report.  He said that this report was outdated and did not apply to this application.  He referred to the Objectors advising that there was less demand for taxis in the Helensburgh and Lomond area and he said that they had not provided any evidence of this.  He indicated that in this digital age a lot of bookings were made by telephone and through the use of mobile phone apps.  He said that if customers were calling Mr Haddow’s office to book a wheelchair accessible vehicle as there were no others in the area then this would not affect other businesses.   Mr McCann also referred to comments made that due to new sports facilities etc at the Faslane base this meant there was no longer a need for anyone to venture out of the base.  He said that no evidence had been provided to back this up.  He advised that just because there were new facilities this did not mean no one would want to leave the base.  He said that there was still passing trade from the base.  He pointed out that of all the objections received, 31 of these were written in identical terms with only the names, addresses and dates which were handwritten being the only difference.  He asked that the application be granted.

QUESTIONS FROM OBJECTORS

Mr Black referred to Mr McCann advising that there was a lack of wheelchair accessible vehicles.  He pointed out that Mr Haddow, as Director of TOA which had bought over Trident Taxis, had approximately 20 drivers working for Trident.  He asked why one of those drivers could not drive a wheelchair accessible vehicle.  Mr McCann replied that Mr Haddow had advised that there was one wheelchair accessible vehicle on the road and being driven and that due to demand he was seeking the grant of a licence for another vehicle.  He advised that the car would be driven by Mr Haddow in the first instance.

Mr Black suggested that one of the other drivers would be persuaded to buy a wheelchair accessible vehicle and drive this instead.  Mr McCann advised that he would not speak for anyone else.

Mr Scott sought and received confirmation from Mr McCann that he had indicated there were 56 private hire vehicles within the Argyll and Bute Council area.

OBJECTORS

Mr Scott

Mr Scott advised that he was here last month having to defend the livelihoods of taxi drivers in Helensburgh.  He said that there were 160 taxis coming into Helensburgh from another area and that this was destroying the taxi drivers in Helensburgh.  He listed 160 taxis coming in plus 53 taxis, 12 private hire vehicles and 3 wheelchair accessible vehicles within the Helensburgh and Lomond area.  He asked when this would all stop.  He indicated that Mr Haddow was wealthier than himself and that he received an income from the 160 taxis.  He said that this was a total of £61,000 coming from the taxi drivers for Mr Haddow and his colleagues.  He asked when it was all going to stop and when was the Council was going to show a duty of care to the public plate drivers.  He said that they were on their knees struggling to make a living.  He advised that this issue was not just with this private plate.  He indicated that it was his understanding that there were another 8 or 9 people standing by on the result of this plate.  He advised that the taxi drivers were struggling and said that surely the Council must be saying there was enough plates to cover 2 constituencies never mind Helensburgh and that this could not go on.

Mr Black

Mr Black indicated that everyone had been here before discussing the same issues.  He said that these issues had not gone away.   He referred to the 2012 Scottish Government guidelines on the role of licensing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.