Agenda and minutes

As a Councillor, you are reminded of the requirements under the Council’s Code of Conduct to register interests and to disclose interests in a meeting. You should refer to the requirements set out in the Code of Conduct which are summarised in the notes at the end of this agenda frontsheet.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Chair will read the following statement:

The report contains information which the officer recommends should be exempt from publication and also that the press and public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the appeal, in accordance with the provisions of Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 (exempt information as defined in paragraph 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act).

The Chair will ask the Sub-Committee the following:

Does the Licensing Appeals Sub-Committee agree that the public interest is outweighed by the recommendation to exclude the press and public for this agenda item?

The Chair of the Sub-Committee will welcome those present and introduce him/herself; the remaining members of the Sub-Committee and the officers will then introduce themselves.

A copy of the Sub-Committee appeals procedure is attached.

The Sub-Committee decided on the balance of probabilities it was reasonable toapprove the Refusal of the Private Hire Driver Licence.

The Sub-Committee made its decision for the following reasons:

·       The Sub-Committee found that the applicant in completing their application form had been inaccurate. They had failed to disclose relevant information in that they did not confirm they had previously held a licence.

·       They did not confirm that the licence had been revoked.

·       The Sub-Committee did not accept the explanation that this was accidental, bearing in mind that all other questions were answered correctly, and the applicant signed a declaration to say all the information provided on the form was accurate.

·       The policy says clearly that ‘any dishonesty by any applicant… which is discovered to have occurred in any part of the application process will result in a licence being refused.’

·       The applicant would have known of this requirement for many years, having been licenced by both South Cambridgeshire and Cambridge City. The letter from City Council referred to the fact that the applicant had been a taxi driver for more than 20 years. Thus, the applicant would have known of this requirement, to declare previous licences and revocations.

·       The Sub-Committee acknowledged the applicant had attended an Anger Management course but when asked about anger management issues they were unable to satisfy the Sub-Committee that this would have changed their behaviour to the travelling public.