SCOTTISH BORDERS COUNCIL
22 APRIL 2010
ITEM 18
REPORT BY DIRECTOR OF RESOURCES
CIVIC GOVERNMENT (SCOTLAND ) ACT 1982- REVIEW NUMBER OF ZONES FOR TAXIS
1 PURPOSE
1.1 This report provides Members with further information on the current operation
of taxis within the Scottish Borders with regard to the 4 trading zones as
requested by Members at the meeting of the Council on 17 December 2009.
2 BACKGROUND
2.1 The Council are the relevant Licensing Authority for the Scottish Borders in terms of
the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982, as amended and have responsibility for the
regulation of amongst other licensed activities the taxi trade.
2.2 In a report to Council on 17 December 2009 Members were advised that through a
consultation process with the other Councils and the local trade, views were sought,
amongst other matters, on whether or not the Council should maintain the present four
zone system within the area, which was based on the former licensing authorities, the
four District Councils. Members agreed then that there be no change in the present
division of the Council’s area into four zones but that a report on zoning policy be
presented to a future meeting. At the same meeting Members also approved to defer
the replacement of the existing licence plates until the report of zoning policy had been
considered.
2.3 To better inform Members of the matter of Zones, the views of the trade, Community
Safety, the Business Improvement Unit and Passenger Transport were consulted.
They were asked for any evidence they may have had on the operation and
effectiveness or otherwise of the present system and to seek views on any proposed
change. Contact was also made with Highland Council who had changed to a single
zone from an 8 Zone on 2 September 1998.
HIGHLAND COUNCIL
2.4 The Highland Council issues related to access to Dalcross Airport. The current zones
were seen as a barrier to that. There was also a desire to resolve a number of other
issues regarding the numbers of vehicles and a practice of leasing taxi plates. There
was debate on the possible effects of such a change including traffic management
issues with Inverness itself if all licensed taxis chose to trade there, lack of local
knowledge of specified streets and the practical issues of lack of taxi rank space.
There is no evidence of any of these concerns being experienced after the change. It
is respectfully suggested that none of the issues referred to in the Highland report are
replicated in the Scottish Borders at this time.
OTHER COUNCILS
2.5 Appendix 1 to the report to Scottish Borders Council of 17 December 2009 advised
members that of the 14 Councils who responded at that time on the question of
operation of Zones. Within their area, 9 had no zones, 5 had zones based on the
former District Council areas. None of the 14 had any plans to review their current
position. Further consultation was not therefore carried out with them.
TRADE
2.6 At the beginning of March 2010, all 121 licensed taxi vehicle operators were contacted
by letter and asked to respond in terms of the response sheet which forms Appendix 1
to this report. The outcome of that is summarised in Appendix 2 to this report.
COMMUNITY SAFETY TEAM
2.7 That team had no evidence of any issues resulting from the present system, and
reported that in previous discussions with a former trade association body when it
existed there was no appetite for a single zone and there was concern that there would
be an influx of all taxis into the Galashiels area for the late night dispersal and this
might affect the Kelso / Hawick areas. They confirm however there is no evidence to
support these views. They note however that the present taxi stances in Galashiels
which require review could not accommodate any further influx. Members will recall
that the increase of taxi stance within Galashiels is to be taken forward when the inner
relief road works are complete. However this will be unlikely to provide sufficient rank
space for all vehicles in the Scottish Borders.
BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT UNIT
2.8 The Business Improvement Unit was asked if, through the Household Survey or other
consultation, it had any evidence relating to journeys made by taxi. The only relevant
data comes from a question in the Household Survey which asked about travel to work.
The responses to this question indicated that only 1% used transport falling into the
“other” category which included taxis, vans, minibuses and school buses. The Scottish
Household Survey likewise contained very little information on taxis as a mode of
transport but indicated that nationally 2% use taxis, compared to a zero response from
Scottish Borders respondents
PASSENGER TRANSPORT
2.9 Passenger Transport have no information on the taxi trade sector and have no role with
them other than as a consumer of the services of some through contracts which are not
regulated by the taxi legislation . They accordingly have no view on the Zone position.
3 CONCLUSIONS
3.1 It would seem that there is no clear evidence on the role that taxis play in travel to work
arrangements whether for residents or on what effect zoning has on the trade itself. It
is perhaps to be assumed that the high percentage of car ownership within the Scottish
Borders impacts on this. There are clear roles for the trade within the contract side of
the Local Authority through its transport for schools, further education and social work
functions. As this work lies within the contract and” not ply for hire” section of the
business it has no relevance for the consideration of zones. It is perhaps reasonable to
assume that there are several sectors of Borders life who use taxis to a higher degree,
namely those not travelling to work as retired or not in work, and use for social
activities. There is no evidence from any work carried out by the Local Authority on the
impact on residents of the taxi trade. The Community Safety team whose officers
respond to the late night activity and antisocial behaviour issues have no information
on what role the taxi zones make in either assisting or otherwise their dispersal policy.
They have been unable to comment if a single zone would impact adversely on
services in areas seen outside the central hub.
3.2 It is acknowledged that Highland Council did alter the status of their zones from eight
District based to a single zone but it is suggested that the factors which played in that
decision are not present here and it is to be noted that the decision by Highland was
relatively soon after the impact of the 1996 Local Government reorganisation.
3.3 The result of the survey of the 121 licensed taxi operators was a majority against
change from the present four operating zones (21% of the trade responded to the
survey, and of that 19 were against the change, with only 5 operators in favour.)
3.4 It is suggested therefore in the absence of any positive driver for a change that the
present division remain.
4 CONSULTATION
4.1 The Acting Director of Technical Services, Head of Legal and Democratic Services, the
Clerk to the Council, The Chief Financial Officer and the Head of Audit and Risk
Management were consulted on this report and their comments incorporated into the
report
5 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
5.1 This report has no direct financial implications
6 RISK COMMENTARY
6.1 If a decision is not taken in the immediate future on the position of the number of
trading zones within the Council the decision to upgrade the trade plates will be
delayed and this will bring adverse criticism on the Council.
6.2 If a decision is taken in the face of the majority view of the trade in the absence of
empirical supporting evidence there is a risk of adverse criticism that the Licensing
Authority have not listened to a group of their stakeholders.
7 EQUALITIES
7.1 It is anticipated there will be no adverse impact due to race, disability, gender, age,
sexual orientation or religion /belief arising form the proposals contained in this report.
8 SUMMARY
8.1 Officers were instructed to bring a further report to the Council on the zoning policy for
taxis in the Scottish Borders. To inform this report, consultation was carried out with the
licensed taxi operators, Passenger Transport and Community Safety within the Council
as well as seeking information from the Business Improvement Unit.
8.2 A majority of those operators who responded were against any change citing possible
traffic congestion and lack of rank space in the principal towns and in particular
Galashiels, loss of service to the public through lack of local knowledge and disruption
to the trade provision. There was no evidence from the Community safety team to
comments on whether or not the late night town dispersals would be better if served by
a single zone or what effect there would be on antisocial behaviour and they noted that
previous consultations with the trade had resulted in a retention of the four zones.
8.3 There was no evidence from any of the council surveys on the role of the taxi trade.
Whilst the taxi trade tendered for contracts let by the council for school and social work
transport, these roles are outwith the taxi hire regulation.
9 RECOMMENDATION
9.1 It is recommended that in the face of a lack of a positive response in favour of
change that the present division of four trading zones for taxis remain.
Approved by
Name Designation
Tracey Logan Director of Resources
Author(s)
Name Designation
Anne Isles Legal and Licensing Services
Manager
Background Papers:
Previous Minute Reference: Scottish Borders Council 17 December 2009
Note – You can get this document on tape, in Braille, large print and various computer formats by
contacting the address below. Anne Isles can also give information on other language translations
as well as providing additional copies.
Contact us at Legal and Democratic Services, Newtown St Boswells TD6 0SA. Tel 01835
825002(DL) –
aisles@scotborders.gov.uk
APPENDIX 1
APPENDIX 2
Number of licenced Operators 121
Number of licenced Taxis 231
Number of responses returned 26 (21%) plus one email which is referred to outwith these
tables
.
Number of responses broken down per existing Zone Taxis
Zone 1 0 0
Zone 2 18 25
Zone 3 7 17
Zone 4 1 3
Number supporting change to single Zone Taxis
Zone 1 0 0
Zone 2 5 5
Zone 3 2 2
Zone 4 0 0
Numbers supporting Four Zones (Status Quo) Taxis
Zone 1 0 0
Zone 2 13 20
Zone 3 5 15
Zone 4 1 3
COMMENTS
Support Single Zone
From those supporting the single zone the majority stated as a reason the reduction in dead miles
and several believed it increased their freedom of choice as to where to trade.
Only 1 operator indicated that current business was predominately reliant on street hire, the others
indicating that their business was by telephone hire.
Support Status Quo
From those against the single zone and in favour of the retention of 4 Zones (no response
promoted any variation lesser or greater than this number ) the majority stated as a reason that
they believed this would lead to congestion and overtrading in Galashiels which would in turn lead
to issues over lack of rank /stance space within the town and within the centre in particular, the
effect this could have on tensions within the trade, the likelihood of the larger firms growing to the
detriment of smaller local ones, the possibility of the public suffering from a lack of local knowledge
of areas and routes and the possible loss of service outwith the hub area of Galashiels.
The majority of operators responding in favour of the status quo indicated that the majority of their
business came from a mix of stance and telephone hire and 3 businesses were exclusive in stance
work.
Other responses
1) 2 further responses controlling 5 and 2 taxis in Zones 2 and 3 respectively were returned
outwith the deadline. Both were in favour of retaining the zones, but their views have not been
assimilated into this report as outwith response time scale
2) As mentioned above rather than complete the pro forma, one operator (4 taxis) responded
by email at length to state that they had modelled their business on the dual plating aspect allowed
by the Council until their decision on 17 December 2009 and they indicated that they may seek
legal review of that decision. They indicated they chose as dual plating between Zones 2 and 4 as
having the ability to utilise their vehicles to ensure an appropriate return on their investment.
They were against a single zone but that was on the premis of a right to have dual plating.
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