Agenda item

To deal with any questions submitted under Council Procedure Rule A2.2(vi).

One eligible question has been received (report attached).

One eligible question had been received, which was set out in the report.  The Mayor advised that a lengthy preamble to that question, included in the report, had provided some background information and context.  It was not proposed to read out the whole of the preamble on the understanding that Members would have already noted that information.  Accordingly, the Mayor read aloud the question only as shown below.

1)         Engagement with Taxi Drivers and Operators

To the Leader of the Council (Councillor Munsif Dad BEM JP)

Submitted by Councillor Shabir Fazal

“Will the Council consider developing an overall strategy to engage with local taxi drivers and operators with the aim of:

1.      Fully understanding why drivers and operators are choosing to get registered in Wolverhampton at considerable effort and expense rather than Hyndburn;

2.      Further changing the taxi testing regime in favour of Hybrid and fully electric vehicles.  For example, as hybrid and electric cars are far less polluting and far more reliable than even new diesel and petrol cars, extending the period that hybrid cars only needing to be testing every 12 months to the first 7 years of their life and the period for fully electric cars to the first 10 years of life;

3.      Identify incentives for drivers to switch to hybrid and fully electric taxis e.g. by offering reduced fees for taxi and operator licences for hybrid and fully electric cars or offer grants and loans to encourage purchase of new and second hand zero emissions cars including wheelchair accessible cars.  Additionally, the Council (Hyndburn and LCC) could include criteria in contract tenders to make these more favourable to operators with zero emission vehicles;

4.      Improve the car-charging infrastructure within Hyndburn and offer cheaper charging for taxi drivers?

Many of these are currently being done by forward thinking councils who take their net zero responsibilities seriously.  I hope Hyndburn will implement the obvious ones straight away and develop a longer strategy for others.”

Response:

The Leader thanked Councillor Fazal for the question.  He reported that the Council had established a Taxi Liaison Committee, which involved taxi drivers and representatives of operators.  The majority of issues were taken to this group for discussion.  Councillor Dad undertook to refer all of the above issues to the Committee for consideration.  If any changes were proposed, these would be decision for the Cabinet to take.

Councillor Fazal asked a follow up question, as set out below:

He thanked the Leader for his positive response.  Councillor Fazal had listened to the LGA Peer Review feedback on 31^st October 2024, which had highlighted the excellent net zero work undertaken by the Council.  The above engagement with the taxi trade would demonstrate that the Council was being progressive and the suggested actions were obvious steps forward.  He was aware that approximately 50% of licensed taxis in Hyndburn were purely petrol or diesel vehicles.  Given that the Council was committed to net zero emissions, he asked that incentives be approved to promote the switch to hybrid or electric vehicles, which could lead to a reduction in pollution as well as delivering more economical taxis.

Response:

Councillor Dad remarked that the Chair of the Net Zero Working Group, Councillor Kate Walsh, was also present tonight and would look at these issues too.