Agenda item - Worcester Road Hackney Carriage Stand - Update

Agenda item

Worcester Road Hackney Carriage Stand - Update

Minutes:

Following on from the meeting held on 30th September 2013 consideration was given to a report that provided Members with details of the responses received during the consultation on the proposal to amend the Worcester Road Hackney Carriage stand to incorporate a further 7/8 rank spaces.

 

The Senior Licensing Practitioner introduced the report and in doing so drew Members’ attention to section 3.8 in the report, which stated that the request from the Taxi Association to amend the Worcester Road Hackney Carriage Stand to incorporate a further 7/8 rank spaces had been supported by West Mercia Police.  The required public notice was published and consultation letters were sent to all proprietors of vehicles licensed by the Council for use as Hackney Carriages.  Consultation letters were delivered to residents and businesses in the vicinity of the proposed Hackney Carriage stand.  The consultation period ended on 11th October 2013.  The comments and objections received to the consultation were detailed at Appendix 2 to the report.

 

In the intervening period officers from Worcestershire Regulatory Services had engaged in dialogue and met, on the proposed site, with the relevant officers from West Mercia Police and Worcestershire County Council’s Highways Department to discuss the proposal.  The Traffic Management Advisor for West Mercia Police had indicated that they would not support the current proposal.  A Senior Traffic Management Engineer for Worcestershire County Council had expressed concerns about the current proposal.  The Senior Licensing Officer informed the Committee that an invitation had been extended to the relevant officers from West Mercia Police and Worcestershire County Council to attend the meeting to speak further on the objections and comments that had been made with regard to being unable to support the proposal.

 

The Vice-Chairman in the Chair expressed her disappointment that officers from West Mercia Police and Worcestershire County Council had been unable to attend the meeting.  Members also expressed their concerns that officers from West Mercia Police and Worcestershire County Council had initially agreed to support the proposal, whereas now officers from West Mercia Police and Worcestershire County Council were unable to support the proposal.

 

Further discussion followed more specifically on the Worcester Road area.  Members understood the need for additional spaces on Worcester Road in order to ensure that members of the public were safely and quickly transported away from the town centre to prevent potential anti-social behaviour with large numbers of people leaving licensed premises at the same time.

 

Members were in agreement that the recommendation, as detailed in the report, to proceed with the current proposal, was not viable without the support of West Mercia Police and Worcestershire County Council.

 

Councillor R. J. Shannon suggested amending recommendation (b), as detailed in the report, and suggested an alternative recommendation:

 

(b)       that officers explore other options for creating additional rank spaces in the Town Centre.

 

Councillor Griffiths responded and suggested that the Taxi Association would have made that proposal should there have been a need, but they had identified a need in the Worcester Road area.

 

Officers confirmed that if the amended recommendation was agreed they would have to carry out another consultation on the proposal to explore other options for creating additional rank spaces in the Town Centre.  This would result in further delays to the current issues on Worcester Road and would result in additional costs for advertising and officer time.

 

Members discussed other options for additional spaces on the Worcester Road and the issues highlighted with the current proposal, as the map provided, showed taxi rank spaces had been allocated in front of a commercial property thereby restricting access. 

 

Members highlighted to officers the need to ensure that the relevant representatives/officers from West Mercia Police, Worcestershire County Council and the Town Centre Regeneration team were consulted with and invited to attend future meetings to discuss the additional rank spaces on the Worcester Road area.

 

Having been put to the vote with a majority agreement it was 

 

RESOLVED that officers be tasked to explore other options for creating additional rank spaces in the Worcester Road area.

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