Further to Minute 3 of the meeting held on 22 June 2021, the Director for Economic Growth and Neighbourhood Services submitted a report asking the Committee to consider whether an Unmet Demand Survey should be carried out during autumn 2022 and whether it would be appropriate to amend the current limiting policy approach to hackney carriagenumbers.  The following documents were attached to the report:

Appendix i: - Email to and reply from the RTA;

Appendix ii – Email to and replies from drivers;

Appendix iii – Climate Impact Assessment.

The report explained that a moratorium on the issue of new hackney carriage vehicle licences had been implemented in March 2009 and had been maintained ever since, following analysis of unmet demand surveys completed in 2012, 2015 and 2018, each of which confirmed there was no significant underlying unmet demand for hackney carriages inReading.  Officers had been in the process of arranging a new survey in accordance with the Taxi requirements of Section 16 of the Transport Act 1985 and the Department for Transport and Private Hire Vehicle Licensing: Best Practice Guidance 2010 (Sections 45 to 51) when the Covid19 pandemic had caused the country to go into three national lockdowns which had made it impossible to continue with the implementation of asurvey.

The report set out guidance that had been produced by the Department for Transport which stated:

“Section 16 of the Transport Act 1985 does not specify the frequency of the unmet demand assessment, but the Department’s Best Practice Guidance issued in 2010 suggested this is conducted every three years.  Though the decision as to when an unmet demand survey is conducted remains that for a licensing authority, we are aware that we are in a very unusual situation at present; while this continues it would seem highly unlikely that there would be significant unmet demand for taxis.  We would expect unmet demand surveys to be conducted once travel levels return to more normal levels or if concerns are raised by the trade orpublic.”

The report noted that if a survey was to be conducted in the current circumstances, it was highly unlikely the results would be a true reflection of the trade in Reading or of levels of demand for hackney carriagevehicles, and therefore proposed that the survey be delayed until such time as a more normal level of usage wasapparent.

The report explained that no public consultation had taken place but comments had been requested from the trade organisations. The response from the Reading Taxi Association (RTA) had agreed to delay the Unmet Demand Survey by 12 months and confirmed that, at the moment, there were only an estimated 93 HCVs working the ranks out of the216 licensed HCVs, and that carrying out a survey now would be unfair on rental drivers.  Asif Rashid representing the RTA attended the meeting, addressed the Committee, and confirmed to the Committee that the RTA agreed the survey should be delayed until 2022.

Resolved –

(1)      That the Unmet Demand Survey not be implemented in 2022 due to the current financial hardship that was affecting the Reading Borough Council Hackney Carriage trade and that it be delayed until October 2023 when it was hoped that the current financial difficulties due to the Covid 19 pandemic had eased following the return of business to thetrade;

(2)      That the current policy of not issuing any further hackney carriage licences outside the agreed number of 216, be retained pending a review following the next survey in 2023.