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Your opinions please on the legalities or otherwise of this application for a Licensed Private Hire Sub Office within the O2 Academy nightclub in Birmingham, which has a capacity of about 4,000 & an established large taxi rank right outside the venue;

BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL
REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF REGULATORY SERVICES
TO THE LICENSING COMMITTEE
16 SEPTEMBER 2009
ALL WARDS
LICENSING OF PRIVATE HIRE SUB OFFICE
1. Summary
1.1 A request has been received from Mr Andrew McDonald, on behalf of the O2 Academy, proposing a transport service for O2 customers which incorporates the use of a private hire booking office within their premises. This proposed arrangement is to be supported by Five Star Cars who have agreed contractual arrangements to provide these facilities.
1.2 In order to legitimately facilitate this service Five Star Cars have made an application (Appendix 1) for a private hire operators licence to operate a sub-office from within the foyer of the O2 Academy in order to accept bookings.
2. Recommendations
2.1 That the Committee considers the application by Five Star Cars for a private hire operators sub-office to be contained within the foyer area of the O2 Academy.
2.2 That, should the application be agreed, the Committee also:-
2.2.1 approves a range of supplementary conditions, specific to this application, that are considered reasonable and necessary as set out in Appendix 2 to this report.
2.2.2 agrees an appropriate fee for the sub-office licence; it is suggested that this be equal to the existing fee for the grant of an operators licence (currently £1,202) followed by the operators renewal fee (currently £686) on each subsequent anniversary.
Contact Officer: Pete Barrow, Head of Licensing
Telephone: 0121 303 6103
Email: pete.barrow@birmingham.gov.uk
Originating Officer: Louise Dale, Licensing Enforcement Officer
Ref: LIC/2452
07/09/2009
1
3. Background
3.1 Birmingham has a vibrant night time economy located in key areas around the City notably Broad Street, Southside and Sutton Town Centre.
3.2 At busy times the demand for hackney carriage and private hire vehicles far exceeds the resources immediately available and members of the public are often not prepared to make a private hire booking with a licensed operator via telephone and then wait for a vehicle to be despatched. Instead they sometimes choose to flag down and “hire” private hire vehicles in the street, regardless of the safety implications associated with this practice.
3.3 As a licensing authority we actively promote to all licensed premises the steps they should take to assist their customers with safe travel home at the end of the night. We also explore all legitimate means to ensure public safety and to encourage members of the public to make legitimate private hire bookings.
3.4 One potential way in which these aims can be progressed could be through the licensing of private hire sub-offices in or near to existing licensed premises in order to facilitate the provision of a transport service for the customers of those premises.
4. O2 Academy
4.1 The O2 Academy has proposed a scheme to ensure their customers have the choice of hiring a hackney carriage from the designated taxi rank sited in front of the nightclub, or, by making a legitimate private hire booking directly with Five Star Cars at a sub-office contained within the foyer area of the premises.
4.2 The O2 Academy will provide SIA (Security Industry Authority) licensed marshals to supervise the existing hackney carriage rank and the contract with Five Star Cars provides for marshals at the private hire pick-up point. This will provide a safe area for their customers to wait for their transport home.
4.3 The O2 Academy has a contractual agreement with Five Star Cars and this will ensure they provide sufficient numbers of vehicles to meet their customer demands within an agreed time and that all cars are legitimately booked and insured.
4.4 The scheme would not only ensure the safety of customers but act as an effective means of controlling the exit and dispersal of customers away from the nightclub. It also aims to reduce some of the anti-social behaviour that can be associated with a busy night time venue. (i.e. plying for hire, horn blowing, noise from large numbers of customers spilling out into the surrounding area etc.)
Ref: LIC/2452
07/09/2009
2
5. Five Star Cars
5.1 Five Star Cars is owned by Zafar Iqbal and has been licensed by Birmingham City Council since 1996. The main base office is located at 87 McDonald Street, Highgate, B5 6TN and the company currently operates approximately 120 licensed private hire drivers/vehicles.
5.2 The company operates a computerised booking and despatch system which transmits passenger details, pick-up point and destination directly to DATA units fitted in the driver’s vehicle. This will enable the marshals supervising the private pick up point to assist passengers and ensure they get into the correct vehicles.
5.3 The private hire operator sub-office would only operate when the nightclub is open and only provide facilities for O2 Academy customers.
5.4 Bookings made at the sub-office will be transmitted directly to the company’s main trading office. The bookings will then be despatched directly from the main office to individual drivers. The sub-office will not allocate bookings directly to drivers.
6. Review Arrangements
6.1 Should this application be approved it is suggested that the agreement and arrangements be reviewed quarterly in order to fully assess their effectiveness.
7. Implications for Resources
7.1 Should the Licensing Committee agree the application then a decision is required as to an appropriate fee for the sub-office licence. It is recommended that this should be equal to the existing fee for the grant of an operators licence (currently £1,202) followed by the operators renewal fee (currently £686) on each subsequent anniversary. It is considered that such fees are justified in terms of the costs associated with administration and enforcement.
8. Implications for Policy Priorities
8.1 The content of this report relates to one of the key aims of your Committee as identified in the Council Plan 2008-2013, namely to improve standards of licensed people, premises and vehicles in the City.
Ref: LIC/2452
07/09/2009
3
9. Implications for Equalities and Diversity
9.1 No specific implications have been identified.
DIRECTOR OF REGULATORY SERVICES
Background papers: Nil



Appendix 1 available on this link; http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/democracy/ ... ID%3d48920



Appendix 2

PRIVATE HIRE OPERATORS
SUPPLEMENTARY CONDITIONS OF LICENCE
INTRODUCTION
These Conditions are in addition to and supplement the Standard Conditions of Licence issued under the Private Hire Operators Licence (number 172) and relate solely to the operation of a sub office situated at the:
O2 Academy, Horsefair, Bristol Street, B1 1DB
This licence is granted subject to you complying with the following Conditions of Licence and those stipulated within the Standard Conditions.
Failure to comply with any of these Conditions and the Standard Conditions may lead to a prosecution or could lead to your private hire operator licences being suspended, revoked or not renewed.
CONDITIONS
Hours of Operation
1) This licence is only in force during the times detailed below. The sub office may only be in operation and accept bookings during the hours of:
2200 hours Friday until 0400hrs on the following Saturday morning.
2200 hours Saturday until 0400hrs on the following Sunday morning.
2130 hours until 2330 hours/midnight on any evening when there is an Academy 1 show at the venue.
2) The licence will only remain force for the duration of the contract between the O2 Academy and Five Star Cars.
3) Should the contract referred to in (2) above be terminated, for whatever reason and by whichever party, the Licensed Operator must cease operating the sub office with immediate effect and notify the Licensing Section within 72 hours.
Records
4) The sub office must have a computerised booking system installed, which is connected to and working in conjunction with the computerised booking system maintained at the principal licensed office. All bookings taken at the sub office shall be recorded upon that computerised system.
5) Bookings taken at the sub office will be recorded within the daily booking records maintained at the principal licensed office and shall be maintained in accordance with Condition 4 of the Standard Conditions.
6) Bookings shall only be passed to a licensed private hire driver from the principal licensed office. The details of the booking passed to a driver must contain the same information as that required by Condition 5 of the Standard Conditions. No booking shall be allocated to a driver from the sub office or by a Marshal.
7) The computerised booking system maintained at the principal licensed office shall also record the fact that the booking was passed from the sub office and shall contain the name of the member of staff taking the booking.
8 ) The computerised booking system maintained at the sub office shall be available for inspection by an authorised officer AT ANY TIME during the hours of operation.
9) The licensed Operator or a responsible person over the age of 18, and nominated by the Operator in writing to the Licensing Section, must be at the sub office and in charge of the operation and immediately contactable by an authorised officer AT ANY TIME during the hours of operation.
10) The Operator must also ensure that any person left in charge of the sub office in the absence of the Operator is fully aware of these Conditions and those attached to the standard licence and the need to comply with all Conditions at all times.
11) The Operator must ensure that no vehicle operated by him shall park within 50 metres of either the sub office or passenger pick up point without having first being allocated a booking.
12) The Operator must ensure that the provision of the transport service provided to the O2 Academy and its customers is compliant with their contractual arrangements.
13) A copy of the sub office Private Hire Operators Licence must be on display in a prominent position at all times.
INTERPRETATION
In these Conditions:-
(a) “authorised Officer” means any Officer authorised by Birmingham City Council or any Police Constable.
(b) “operator” means the person to whom the Council has granted the Private hire Operators Licence, to which these conditions apply. In the
case of a partnership to each of the partners, and in the case of a company to each of the company directors.
(c) “principal licensed office” means the premises stipulated on the standard licence as the address from which the operator may operate.
(d) “Standard Conditions” means the Conditions issued with the standard private hire operators licence (Document 16/4/04 VO2)

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

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Is there any room for them to stop to pick up punters, could this be a dangerous situation whereby there are to many vehicles in one area causing a blockage while the hacks are trying to go about there legitimate business.
FFS there could be over 100 PH descending on the club at closing time.
What if there is a fire and the appliances cannot get through, or there is trouble outside and the police cannot attend, or an ambulance cannot get through to attend a sick or injured person

Brum I would object most strongly to the council, about the above, and the club is already serviced well enough by the hacks

mind you if there is enough hacks waiting they may never get through

We only found out about this at 14.20hrs today. We intend to object, but at the moment are struggling to find strong enough ground to object.

Public Order has been mentioned as this is a newly re-opened club that has stood empty for about 5 years, prior to which there were major scenes of disturbance between Hacks & PH, constant road blockages etc.

I am wondering if it could be argued that by putting a booking office within a nightclub it could be construed as touting as they would clearly be soliciting for business, remembering the case where a tart in a shop window did not have to say anything; just her mere presence constituted soliciting.

Having re-read the legislation governing PH Operator's Licenses, I am however, finding it quite difficult to come up with strong grounds for objections, which is not like me at all. Perhaps there are no genuine objections that might carry real weight.

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.

I think you have good grounds on Skips suggestion alone about safety issues, also isn't a booking office the same as sitting a car outside waiting for ppl to ask for a ride, ask if you can have a rank outside their taxi office as you believe there is grounds for businees there and see what they say to that, and finally state that unless this gets addressed properly it will result in bad feeling and that a free phone inside the club should be as far as this should be allowed to go, if the disagree get dirty with them and apply for a street vendors licence to sell alcohol outside the club and sell it cheap, not that it will get that far but it might send a message about fair competition, you and I know the only reason for a booking office is so the manager of the club can receive a bonus from it.

If the premises gets the 'sub office approval' then I suggest the touting argument is null and void, basically a number of other places have such offices, in particular rail stations.

The public safety angle is perhaps the best route, as skippy suggests, the increased number of vehicles in the area (which the report seems to disagree with) and the possibility of delayed response times from emergency services due to clogged roads.

CC

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

I do think your barking up the wrong tree here.

There's a number of different things to consider.

My number one concern is the lack of consultation, to give you under a week to form an objection maybe outside the rules your council work to in respect of accepting objections and evidence.

Secondly, there is no such thing in your city as a 'private hire sub office', how can a person make an application for something which doesn't exist?

Thirdly, I very much doubt the premises has planning permission, surely this should be sought prior to an application, as described on your council website?

I have received an email concerning this issue from a HC driver in Birmingham.

CC

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

I agree they would need planning permission for booking office.


They could say like Dundee that block bookings MAY be legal and allow them to pick up.Dundee council refer to the blackpool case and Quote the judge who says block bookings May be legal.(which i say is pish)

All they want is the streets cleared and until a court rules on this it is going to spread all over the country.Dundee is still fighting this but the wheels of justice is taken time.

I heard yesterday that a certain section that has arisen from the ashes of BASTA are touting that they are / had formed a new association (Hackney Carriage Association) & had joined the National Association.

To which I replied, "Which National Association ,,,,, Pigeon Fanciers ..... Pie In The Sky Merchants ..... which associatiom?

They could not answer me.

Has anyone from Brum joined the NTA recently & are there any Brum members of the NTA?

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.

No.

CC

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

The first thing that comes to mind.... is whether or not the premises has planning permission to be used as a Private Hire Office..... secondly on safety grounds. has any body contacted the Fire Brigade, would the positioning of this( office) become a safety issue.... would it hinder the public in the event of evacuating the building because of a fire.

_________________
Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

...NTTG..

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

Then their worries are truly over

CC

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

I think your council are stark raving mad.

The case in Blackpool was about Blackpool council refusing to allow a condition which allowed block bookings.

Blackpool council won the case.

CC

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

WTF are NTTG???

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.

the National Taxi Trades Group (NTTG)

CC

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin