Lack of drivers behind taxi licence fee freeze

By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporter 

Due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, taxi licence fees in Powys will be frozen this financial year.

At a meeting of Powys County Council’s (PCC) Planning, Taxi Licensing and Rights of Way Committee, councillors discussed a recommendation to keep the fees for the current financial year as they were during 2020/21.

Senior taxi licensing officer, Sue Jones, explained that the department had needed to adapt its practises because of the pandemic, with many drivers either laving the sector or waiting for better times before renewing their licenses.

Figures in the report show the number of licences for private hire vehicles as of January 1 was 247, which is a drop of 17 from October 1, 2019.

Similarly the number of Hackney Carriage Vehicles on January 1 was 117 compared to 164 on October 1, 2019.

Ms Jones said: “Normally I would present the report earlier in the year as new fees have to be advertised, and we’d go through a period of consultation. But this report proposes leaving them as they are at the moment.”

She explained that they usually base fee charges on the data from two years ago, and it would have been “likely” that they would have increased slightly this year if the pandemic had not occurred. Consequently the fees based on  2020/21 data would have seen a drop.

“Obviously 12 months ago everything changed and we had to significantly adapt the processes last year,” she said, adding that taxis had continued to be operate throughout the pandemic and the various lockdowns.

“Applicants renewing their licence need to send their documents to us electronically, vehicle inspections have been suspended temporarily for obvious reasons in relation to reducing risk of virus transmission.

“If anyone presents a new vehicle, this is being done by video link or photographs.

“We had to temporarily stop compliance checks that we would have done throughout the year, but we will be picking those up again next month.”

A review will take place later this year in time to implement any changes to fees from April 2022.

The fees which don’t include the cost for DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checks are:

• Hackney carriage private hire (1 year) £148
• Driver licence (3 years) £260
• Driver licence (1 year)  £150
• Private Hire Operators (5 years) £405
• Knowledge/Competency £40.