Agenda item - Public Questions

(The closing date for receipt of public questions is 12 noon on 17 June 2010).

No public questions received at date of publication.

5.1       The Committee considered a report of the Director of Strategy and Governance setting out a question received from Ms G Des Moulins of the Brighton & Hove Federation of Disabled People in the following terms:

            “The Brighton and Hove Federation of Disabled People warmly welcomes the recommendations of the Equalities Review and would like to take this opportunity to thank the Chair of Licensing for her support and particularly like to mention Judy Redford for her extremely thorough and far reaching review.

            On reading the report it would appear it hasn’t addressed the percentage of Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles (WAV’s) currently available because it was viewed the commencement of the Equalities Act in October would be the mechanism to address this issue. We have now heard that the commencement has been delayed, in view of this we would ask the Committee what they intend to do now to address the inadequate number of WAV’s in Brighton and Hove.”

5.2       The Chairman thanked Ms DesMoulins for her question and responded as follows:

            “It was only recently that the government explained that the scheduled start date for the Equalities Act was likely to be postponed to allow businesses, people, organisations and interested parties to have time to carefully prepare for this significant legislation. Unfortunately, this announcement was made as the equalities review later on this agenda was nearing completion. In the report in front of members today, there are a number of recommendations that should increase the percentage of wheelchair accessible vehicles over time including increasing the age limit for wheelchair accessible vehicles that can be licensed and requiring all new and transferred proprietors’ licences for hackney carriages to be accessible.

            Having said that, I will ask that the officers continue to work with the Federation of Disabled People and the trade through the taxi forum for policy options to increase the number of wheelchair accessible vehicles and reduce the discrepancy in waiting times for passengers requiring such vehicles.

            We do not currently know when the provisions of the Equality Act will come into force and we would welcome any information from the Government Equalities Office on scheduling for implementation.”

5.3       The Chairman invited Ms DesMoulins to ask a subsidiary question however, she stated that she did not wish to ask a subsidiary question as such but wished to urge the Council to take a pro-active approach in addressing this matter.

5.4       RESOLVED - That the response be noted.