Taxi licence fees to freeze in Plymouth because of pandemic
It's to help drivers avoid hardship due to the fall in trade caused by restrictions
Plymouth City Council is to freeze taxi licence fees due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
The council’s regulation of hackney carriages and private hire vehicles has to be self-financing from fees, with no cross-subsidy between the accounts, and a five-year plan has been agreed to ensure the books balance.
Councillors on the Taxi Licensing Committee heard at a meeting on Thursday that the service had made cost savings, but a review found the fee for the hackney carriage drivers licence was required to go up from April.
However, because of the impact of the pandemic, councillors agreed with a proposal to freeze the fee to help drivers and avoid hardship due to the fall in trade caused by restrictions.
They also agreed as a result to delay the target to balance the books on the hackney carriage account by a year to 2024/25.
A report to the committee from licensing manager Rachael Hind said: “The accounts have been reviewed and the only fees that would require to be increased are the Hackney Carriage Drivers licence fee.
“However, due to the current Covid-19 pandemic, it is proposed that a further year is allowed for the accounts to balance to assist the trade during this time and prevent unnecessary hardship to drivers.”
Hackney carriages can be flagged down in the street, and private hire cars have to be pre-ordered. The council’s regulation of the taxi industry for both types of vehicle operates under a framework set out by the Plymouth City Council Act 1975. It has to be self-financing from the income from licence fees, to recover the full cost of administration including enforcement.
Cllr Ian Tuffin said the proposal to freeze fees was sensible and “hit the right note” as the full effects of the pandemics were still unknown.
He said: “The important thing to consider is that the greater impact of Covid is not really going to hit us yet.”
Mrs Hind told the meeting that figures showed a drop in hackney carriage licences of eight per cent and private hire of 11 per cent.
She said some drivers had a three-year licence, so the effect of the pandemic on numbers was unclear.
She added: “The impact of Covid-19 may mean that drivers have found alternative work and may not renew their licences.”
She said savings had been made in staffing and legal costs for the service and the accounts would be kept under review.
Mrs Hind added: “It is a difficult time at the moment, we don’t know how quickly we are going to recover in terms of the vaccination.
“But we have made savings, and we are in a lot better position than we would have been.”
Committee chair Gareth Derrick said: “Clearly it’s been a difficult year for so many people in so many ways, and taxi drivers not the least.
“It’s obvious that the trade itself has dropped off very significantly, and a number of drivers have dropped out anyway.”
He said the downside of the pandemic had been significant, but it was important to recognise there had been support from the Government and the city council for small businesses.
The committee heard that most drivers had been able to apply for a Government support grant as a result of coronavirus restrictions.
A five-year plan was agreed by the council in 2020 to get the hackney carriage accounts out of a deficit and keep the private hire accounts in surplus.
The budgets for hackney carriage and private hire are operated as two separate trading accounts, and the fees were reviewed to ensure the accounts balanced without any cross-subsidy between them or support from the council’s general funds. The two accounts are further broken down for the driver licence and vehicle licence, and an operator licence for private hire.