LICENSING COMMITTEE AGENDA - Hartlepool Borough Council

Licensing Committee – 6 th November 2012 4.5
years when they are made available they are currently classed as being too old
to be used as a licensed vehicle in Hartlepool.
3. ISSUES
3.1 Prior to being licensed for the first time, hackney carriage and private hire
vehicles are subjected to a mechanical test, carried out at the Council’s garage,
and then at six monthly intervals until it is 6 years old when it would usually be
replaced. Vehicles that do not pass both of these tests do not receive a licence.
3.2 The mechanical test covers issues of mechanical fitness similar to a standard
MOT but with some additional checks specific to licensed vehicles.
3.3 In addition to the mechanical test, vehicles are also visually inspected by a
licensing officer prior to being licensed for the first time and then periodically
throughout its lifetime as a licensed vehicle.
3.4 If a vehicle fails either a mechanical or visual inspection its licence may be
suspended until such time as it is considered satisfactory once again.
3.5 The minimum and maximum age of licensed vehicles is a matter for local
licensing authorities and there are no national standards.
3.6 Members will be aware that some progress has been made in harmonising
certain aspects of taxi licensing policies across the Tees Valley region but this
has not yet extended to vehicle licensing. There is therefore only a certain
degree of consistency at present with Hartlepool, Darlington, Middlesbrough
and Redcar & Cleveland all currently enforcing a 3 year age limit for newly
licensed vehicles. Stockton Borough Council does not operate such an age
policy but rather requires vehicles to pass an emissions standard relating to air
quality.
3.7 Hartlepool’s hackney carriage and private hire fleet is generally considered to
be of high quality and Members may feel that this may be partly attributed to the
strict application of the current age policy.
3.8 Members may feel that the current 3 year age limit unnecessarily limits the
availability of affordable vehicles and that there are sufficient additional quality
controls incorporated into the licensing procedures to ensure that the overall
standard of the fleet would not be detrimentally affected by a partial relaxation
of the minimum age policy.
4. EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY CONSIDERATIONS
4.1 There are no equality or diversity implications.
4.5 Licensing 12.11.06 Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Age Limits HARTLEPOOL BOROUGH COUNCIL
2