Taxi Driver Online

I didn't fully reply before going on my short break to Hayling Island, because I just had this very big hunch that this was nowhere near the end of this matter.

How right I was!!

I have just opened emails from Thursday & Friday & it appears that we now have a special, extraordinary licensing committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday 6th October 2009 to re-visit this subject, with this matter & ONLY this matter on the agenda.

I have never know anything like it ..... a special licensing committee meeting just to discuss an application for a PH sub-office & in the afternoon when all licensing committee meetings that I have attended always started at 10.00am.

What I have been told is that a new application was lodged with the licensing department on Friday 18th September 2009, just two days after the first licensing committee meeting. This time the application is apparently for an operator license in a new PH firm name, but the new PH firm would not have any PH drivers registered with them. If granted, the new PH operator would operate inside the nightclub & intends to take bookings & immediately pass them on to Five Star Cars which are based about a mile away. This set-up is apparently perfectly legal under LG(MP) Act 1976.

However, the agenda item report for the meeting on 6th October 2009 does not reflect what I have been told ….. it merely re-visits the whole application afresh for what appear to be legal reasons.

I am still trying to get in touch with some other trade reps, but they are not answering their phones at the moment.

More to follow when I get more info ….. in the meantime here’s the paperwork for the meeting;


Reminder: Members must declare all relevant personal and/or prejudicial
interests relating to any items of business to be discussed at this meeting

BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL LICENSING COMMITTEE

Tuesday, 6 October 2009 at 1400 hours in Committee Rooms 3 & 4, Council House, Birmingham

A G E N D A

1 APOLOGIES

2 MINUTES
To confirm and sign the Minutes of the last meeting

3 LICENSING OF PRIVATE HIRE SUB OFFICE
Report of Director of Regulatory Services

4 OTHER URGENT BUSINESS
To consider any items of business by reason of special circumstances (to be specified) that in the opinion of the Chairman are matters of urgency.

5 AUTHORITY TO CHAIRMAN AND OFFICERS
''That the Chairman (or in his/her absence, the Vice-Chairman if appropriate) is hereby authorised to act until the next meeting of the Committee except that, in respect of the exercise of the Council's non-Executive functions, the appropriate Chief Officers are hereby authorised to act in consultation with the Chairman and that the Corporate Director of Governance is authorised to affix the Corporate Seal to any document necessary to give effect to a decision of the said officers acting in pursuance of the power hereby delegated to them; further that a report of all action taken under this authority be submitted to the next meeting and that such report shall explain why this authority was used.''


BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL
REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR OF REGULATORY SERVICES TO THE LICENSING COMMITTEE

6 OCTOBER 2009
ALL WARDS

LICENSING OF PRIVATE HIRE SUB OFFICE

1. Summary
1.1 The Committee will recall that at its meeting on 16 September the Committee considered a request 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 proposal was supported by Five Star Cars who have agreed contractual arrangements to provide the facilities.
1.2 In order to legitimately make provision for taking private hire bookings at the venue, Five Star Cars had made an application (Appendix 1) for a private hire operator’s licence to operate a sub-office from within the foyer of the O2 Academy.
1.3 After consideration of the application, the Committee decided to refuse the application. Subsequently, consideration of the circumstances of the hearing suggested that the outcome may have been unsatisfactory. The reasons for this were that the Committee did not express specific grounds for the refusal of the application. It was also considered that the original report did not set out the grounds upon which the committee could legitimately refuse the application. Furthermore, representations received in respect of the application had not been fully presented to the committee. In the circumstances and following legal advice, it was considered that it would be appropriate to rehear the application anew.

2. Recommendations
2.1 That approval be given to the application by Five Star Cars for a private hire operator’s sub-office to be contained within the foyer area of the O2 Academy.
2.2 That approval be given to the range of supplementary conditions, specific to this application, that are considered reasonable and necessary as set out in Appendix 2 to the report.
2.3 That the fee for the sub licence be set at a level 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

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 will often choose to flag down and “hire” private hire vehicles in the street, regardless of the safety implications associated with this illegal practice.
3.3 As a responsible licensing authority we encourage all licensed premises to take appropriate steps to assist their customers with safer travel home at the end of the night. We will also explore all legitimate proposals to ensure public safety and 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 via the licensing of private hire sub-offices in or near to existing entertainment venues in order to facilitate the provision of transport services 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.)

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 Determination of application
6.1 The applicant, Mr Iqbal the operator of Five Star Cars has been invited to attend the meeting together with Mr McDonald, the manager of the O2 Academy.
6.2 There appears to be no legal grounds to prevent the issue of a sub-office licence and all requirements for the granting of a ‘New’ licence have been met.
6.3 There is only one legitimate reason to reject the application, that being if Committee considers that Mr. Iqbal is not a fit and proper person to hold a licence. However Mr. Iqbal’s tenure as licensed operator at Five Star Cars has not created any cause for concern.
6.4 An applicant aggrieved by either the failure to grant an operators licence or by the conditions attached to the licence can appeal to the magistrates court.

7 Submissions by Interested Parties
7.1 A number of written submissions have been received from interested parties objecting to the granting of a private hire sub-office at the O2 Academy. These submissions have been made by members of the hackney carriage trade and are attached to the report at Appendix 3. The interested parties have been invited to attend the hearing.
7.2 Members are advised that there is no requirement to consult either publicly, or with members of the licensed trade, before granting a private hire operator’s licence.

8. Review Arrangements
8.1 It is suggested that the arrangement with the O2 Academy and compliance with conditions should be reviewed quarterly in order to ensure that the operation of the sub-office remains within the terms of the arrangement and continues to comply with both standard and additional conditions as appropriate.

9. Implications for Resources
9.1 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.

10. Implications for Policy Priorities
10.1 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.

11. Implications for Equalities and Diversity
11.1 No specific implications have been identified.
DIRECTOR OF REGULATORY SERVICES
Background papers: Nil


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.

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

There is no such thing as a PH sub office in Birmingham.....wouldnt it be prudent to either discuss the matter with the trade or at least make such a thing before licensing one?

Also the place still needs planning consent ffs

CC

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

Is that the timed out missing post then Brum

I got a nice email from a chap in Birmingham about this.

I emailed a nice letter back, pointing out a few things.

I'm still waiting for the email back thanking me for taking the time to write a reply.

Do you think if I say 'f*ck off you're not a member' next time it will be appreciated?

CC

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

No it's not this one which is mainly copy & paste.

I did this one in Word then copied & pasted .... twice in one day .... don't think so!!

_________________
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.

Cultures in some ares of the world don't understand 'please', 'thank you', 'excuse me', 'sorry' etc., etc..

They also treat women as inferior, whilst maintaining that they are to be worshipped & revered.

My apologies for the bad manner shown by this trade rep. who if I'm not mistaken is self-elected.

Thanks for assisting in this case.

_________________
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.

It would appear that they are expecting a very stormy meeting because a suggested procedure just for this meeting has been sent out;

Suggested procedure for the special meeting on 6th October 2009
relating to Hackney Carriage Licences and Private Hire Vehicle Licences made under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Acts.

The Chair makes his opening remarks and invites identification of other persons present at the meeting. The applicant and objectors will be asked to identify one or at most two representatives to speak on their behalf.

1. The Council’s Licensing Officer outlines details of the application in the report.
2. The applicant is invited to present their case.
3. Committee Members will be invited to ask questions through the Chair.
4. Where appropriate the Police or Licensing Enforcement Officers will be invited to make their observations known to the Committee.
5. The objectors’ representative(s) will be invited to make submission(s).
6. Committee Members will be invited to ask questions through the Chair.
7. The applicant and objector will be permitted to ‘sum up’.
8. The Chairman will ask the Legal Advisor whether there is anything else to be raised or settled before the proceedings are closed.
9. The applicant, objectors, Officers and third parties will withdraw (other than the Legal Officer and the Committee Manager).
10. Committee Members consider the merits of the application.
11. The Chair may request the Legal Officer to provide legal advice and assistance.
12. The parties are invited back into the meeting.
13. The Chair will:
(a) Ask the Committee to vote on the application
(b) Notify the applicant of the Committee’s decision and will usually state that confirmation of it will be in writing.
(c) Give brief details of any conditions attaching to the Licence approval;
(d) Outline the reasons for the refusal (if any). Note that this will not always be the case and often the detailed reasons will be set out in the written confirmation.
(e) Inform the applicant of his/her right of appeal to the Magistrates’ Court if available.
14. These rules of procedure are issued for guidance and may be departed from at the discretion of the Chair where necessary to deal with the application expeditiously and fairly.

_________________
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.

Brum Are you going to be quoting case law and also pointing out the traffic problems that will happen just like it was before when the club was open

Last time the licensing committee would not entertain hearing about traffic & public order issues that pertained to this site when the old club (The Dome) was operating.

I think they might now, because it appears that they have 'dropped a b*ll*ck' in not allowing a full hearing for both the applicant & objectors.

It may be a much longer meeting than the councillors might expect.

_________________
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.

What grounds will you objecting on?

There are no licensing grounds for objection.

The only possible grounds are public order, fire saftey & traffic congestion, bearing in mind that there is an established 16 cab rank outside.

It's strange that the police have been invited this time, whereas they were nowhere to be seen at the first meeting.

The committee may still refuse the application, because from experience I know that the one thing committees done like is when their decisions are questioned & re-visited on procedural grounds by the applicant, which appears to have happened in this case. Coming in on an afternoon won't please them either.

But if it's refused, I fully expect the applicant to appeal via the Magistrates Court, as the proposed schedule of procedure states he will be advised.

_________________
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'm sure no one will see through your impassioned pleas. Self-interest masquerading as civic-mindedness. Talk about mutton dressed as lamb.

Tell me something, if the application was for increasing the size of the rank, would you still be arguing about congestion? Would you even be arguing at all?

Mr BC is trying to defend his trade from those that wish to take it away from him.

Now you may think he is wrong, and you may be right, but too many of the 250,000 taxi/PH drivers do f*** all to fight for the trade, so when someone does they should be applauded not put down.

I wish him well in his endeavours.

_________________
IDFIMH

You're talking about a united front. As long as you have BH and PH cabs competing for the same work you'll never ever see it. That's my point. The BH trade will happily go along to a hearing and spout all manner of unrelated crap in objection to anything they see as giving the PH trade an advantage over them. You're never going to get a united front when BH and PH is Us Vs. Them in the same way you're never going to get a united front when BH's object on congestion grounds to a site that has a 16-cab BH rank outside it.



I'm sure whoever is at the hearing will hear Brummie sounding off with politeness but they'll be dismissing his objections out of hand as either 'unfounded' or 'self-serving'.

You have amended what I wrote & quote your amendments as being what I wrote. Please do not do that as it distorts the history of what I wrote & when viewed by others in the future might be mis-leading.

If you have comments on what I wrote, please put them in your reply. That way all readers know who has written what in all posts at all times, present & future.

Capise?

The actual position of the rank & O2 Academy nightclub is on a 40mph two lane slip road that has immediately prior to that been a four-lane carriageway with the outside two lanes doing into an underpass & the inside two lanes becoming the slip road, plus a further inside lane that is the taxi rank. The nightclub has a capacity of 4,000.

The actual workings of the rank are that at about 10.00pm the coaches that bring people to the venue from outside cities & towns start to occupy the rank & by 10.30pm the rank if full of coaches. Coaches, as I'm sure you know, can only park on a rank to immediately unload & pull off or immediately load & pull off. The coaches stay there until they load at about 2.15 to 2.30am, or 3.15-3.30am depending on the night of the week & then take the clubbers home And police have more important things to do than move coaches off the rank, so no help there.

The cabs then double park alongside the coaches on the inside lane of the highway, as their right to rank legally has now been removed by illegally parked coaches. This now creates a 40mph single lane highway in the outside lane. Private cars & Private Hire Vehicles now stop to drop off & pick up in the outside lane not only causing congestion in the slip road but very often on the approaches to the 40mph underpass. This situation can last up to 10 minutes at times & has caused tailbacks of up to 200 yards & more.

This situation also gives rise to the public order issue with driver, both licensed & the public becoming ever increasingly irate.

Any reasonable, sensible citizen would wish to point out these facts to the licensing committee, but I’m reasonably sure that the police presence at this meeting might suffice.

Since the first licensing committee meeting, it has now been established that the club had their fire safety certificate issued prior to the idea for a PH operator license inside the club being applied for. As the grant of a PH operator license would mean that there would be a desk in the lobby or enclosed unit there at which would be passengers would assemble, that in itself could be seen by the fire service as a potential fire safety risk for escaping night-clubbers. 4,000 people is a lot of people to evacuate in an emergency & with any kind of human obstruction in the foyer close to the exit could cause stampedes & result in people being trodden to death. So the fire safety issue will probably be re-visited too.

Terns Mmh. If I help you, Saltmarket, it will be "turns" with us too. Quid pro quo. I tell you things, you tell me things. Not about this case, though. About yourself. Quid pro quo. Yes or no?

_________________
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.