Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Gordon Blair, Audrey Forrest and Paul Kennedy.

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 Mr Cavin McKay joined the meeting by telephone along with his father Mr Thomas McKay.

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

APPLICANT

Mr McKay advised that both his parents were taxi drivers and that his father had ran a local taxi company in Oban for 20 years.  He said that he hoped to work for the family business.  He said that he currently worked part-time in Costa and that he would like to have more independence and a better source of income.  He added that he had his own vehicle and that he had invested quite a bit of money to be a taxi driver.  He said he would like to help his family and also work for himself.

MEMBERS’ QUESTIONS

Councillor Green sought and received confirmation from Mr McKay’s father that there was a need for more taxi drivers in the town.  Mr Thomas McKay said that his taxi company in Oban had been struggling over the past few months.  He advised that they had 2 cars out every day and that it would be great to have another car to join the company and assist with demand.  He said that if they got a call for a taxi and they could not provide a taxi within 10 minutes the customer would go elsewhere.  He said they were losing a lot of customers due to not having another car.  He advised that his son would be an asset to the company.

Councillor Brown sought and received confirmation from Mr McKay that he would like to join the family business and also provide an income for himself out with the family business.  He advised that he planned to work for himself from the taxi rank and assist the family business through the telephone calls they received.  He confirmed that the family business only operated through telephone calls.

Councillor Philand sought and received confirmation from the Council’s Solicitor, Mr Walker, that there were currently 51 taxis in the Oban, Lorn and the Isles area.  He advised that there were 52 taxis when the LVSA survey was carried out in 2019 and if the Committee granted this application today the total number of taxis in the area would be 52.

SUMMING UP

Applicant

Mr McKay advised that this was a career that he would like to go into and said that having his own taxi car licence, especially with the summer coming up, when it would be busy, would be beneficial to the family business.  He said it would also improve his finances by having a better job than he was currently in.  He said he was brought up with taxis and had a lot of experience of how the business operated

Mr McKay confirmed that he had received a fair hearing.

DEBATE

Councillor Amanda Hampsey advised that based on the submission from Mr McKay, she thought he sounded like a hardworking and motivated person looking to better his life.  She thought that he would be well suited to going into a career as a taxi driver and that he would be an asset to Oban.  She confirmed that she would be happy to approve the application.

Councillor Brown said she had no issues with this application and that she would be happy to approve the licence.

The Chair sought and received confirmation from all the Members of the Committee that they would like to grant this application.

DECISION

The Committee unanimously agreed to grant a Taxi Car Licence to Mr Cavin McKay and noted that he would receive written confirmation of this within 7 days.

(Reference: Report by Head of Legal and Regulatory Support, submitted)