Agenda item - Licensing of vehicles - access for older people and disabled people

The OPC to hear from Cllr Jacqueline O’Quinn, Chair of the Licensing Committee.   

Cllr O’Quinn introduced herself as the Chair of Licensing Committee and that taxis were a key focus of work, dealing with issues such as the arrival of Uber in the city. She felt that Senior Citizens concessionary bus passes were vital to give older people, especially women, to give them access to the city and their friends. The Equality Act 2010 had meant a greater focus on access for disabled people, including those who use wheelchairs, but covered a wide range of issues such as people with cancer or suffering from dementia. 

John Cooke explained that he was the dementia lead for the Patcham Community Action Team and he believed that there should be free taxis to the Dementia Café in Patcham and would like this to be supported by the council.

Cllr O’Quinn provided members of the OPC with a copy of the training material for taxi drivers developed by Brighton & Hove Streamline, and approved by BHCC, on Disability Handling and Awareness. She confirmed that the needs of people with dementia were recognised in the training. Streamline taxis waive the fee if wheelchair accessible taxis have to come from further away and in general all taxis were not supposed to start their meter until they had begun the journey, e.g. when loading up the wheelchair. She agreed to raise the issue of the dementia once she had heard from John Cooke.

She emphasised the high standards of taxis in Brighton & Hove. The key duty for the council is to ensure the safety of passengers, which was partly achieved through the knowledge test taxis needed to take and the driver training on safeguarding, which had been prompted by the Victoria Climbie case and the Rotherham child trafficking. Because taxis have been used by people to transport vulnerable children round the country, drivers needed to be aware of potential vulnerabilities e.g. those raised in the night time economy in locations such as West Street and the seafront, with Operation Marble and safe spaces being offered.

Brighton taxis now had CCTV fitted and although drivers were initially against this, now thought it was a positive measure. Drivers also had to have enhanced DBS checks to see if they have a criminal record and their license would be removed if there are issues. A lot of enforcement action takes place. It was clear at a Local Government Association conference that Brighton & Hove was one of the top places for taxi licensing, with measures such as the Blue Handbook. The council organises safeguarding training and the knowledge test, using accredited people and Streamline run the accessibility course.

The Enforcement Officer, Martin Seymour, receives the complaints about the taxi services, for example a driver could lose their licence if are involved in an accident which ends up in court. 99% of users are very happy with the taxi services and complaints involve a tiny % of journeys.

An example of changes is the priority which is now given to women alone late at night and drivers checking that a vulnerable person has got to their destination. As a result of their training, drivers might offer physical help to people who are not steady on their feet or are partially sighted. Brighton & Hove has a relatively high number of older people, who will are increasingly likely to have a disability once they are over 75 years old. Those suffering from conditions such as Parkinsons or dementia can be upset by drivers who could refuse to take them if they are concerned by the symptoms, with cases of drivers thinking a passenger might be drunk.  Cllr O’Quinn confirmed that they are working on training call handlers to recognise if callers have a disability.

The taxi drivers would welcome a card that can be produced to show if a customer has a disability or health issue. At taxi ranks the majority of taxis are saloon cars, although across the city 40% of the taxis are wheelchair accessible. Each year 5 new licenses are granted and they are all given to wheelchair accessible vehicles, but it was recognised that they may be reaching a sufficient amount of wheelchair accessible taxis. Drivers were also expected to have annual health checks. 

Cllr O’Quinn explained that the company, Uber, had been given a licence for just a year following a whole day hearing in 2015.  Uber only began its operation here a week before the licence was due to be renewed, so it was not possible to assess how it had worked. A cross party meeting had agreed to give Uber a licence for a further year until November 2017, rather than the usual 5 years after a year in operation. They would be assessed by the council all the time. Uber had not followed their undertaking  that they would only use Brighton and Hove licensed taxi drivers, and were using many Transport for London (TfL) drivers. Such drivers are not required to take the knowledge, undergo an enhanced DBS check, limited safeguarding training and no CCTV cameras. There have been highly publicised cases of drivers either refusing to let a guide dog in the car (this was in Leicester and was not an Uber driver) or insisting they are put in the boot. It was the view of the council, that people are safer in Brighton & Hove taxis than in TfL cars. Uber have now signed up 6 or 7 B&H drivers but they need far more than this to operate successfully in the city.The council’s concerns are not helped by present legislation and the council will be assisting the LGA in calling for improved legislation. Uber presently have 150 court cases being heard around the world so this gives some idea of the problems that are encountered when they start to operate in an area. The council’s enforcement officers cannot check TfL drivers, but are seeking the power to do this and in January are meeting up with other authorities, via the LGA, who have obtained this right. We would also be seeking costs from TfL for this enforcement work.

Cllr O’Quinn knew that Brighton & Hove drivers wanted a ‘level playing field’, rather than what they saw as being unfair competition. Uber were able to levy a surcharge in periods of high demand, so they would suggest that people who were older or with a disability use Brighton & Hove drivers to avoid this. Private hire tariffs were not regulated in the same way as publically licensed taxis, although it had been the convention in the city to operate on the same lines.  The council had some powers in relation to private hire taxis at ranks and use this to put pressure on private hire companies. Illegal immigration was a concern in the taxi trade so the government has brought in measures for local authorities to check for possible immigration fraud by taxi drivers. TfL has brought in an English test for their driver which is being contested by Uber.