Agenda item

The Senior Licensing Officer submitted a report to give consideration to consulting with interested parties as to introducing a Private Hire and Taxi Vehicle Emissions Policy to improve the air quality and to reduce the health impact for the residents of Northampton Town.  It was explained that on the 8^th June 2016, Cabinet approved, for public consultation, a draft Northampton Low Emission Strategy (NLES) including a strategy to improve the emissions for the private hire and taxi vehicles. At this point, the Senior Licensing Officer submitted an amended report to the table at 3.1.10 of the report, which highlighted the higher pollutant emission category of the Euro 5.

Mr S Wilshire addressed the Committee and stated that a number of taxi and private hire drivers had already purchased vehicles due to the relaxation of the age limit of vehicles in Northampton and that the potential move to Low Emission Vehicles could have huge financial implications and costs on taxi drivers. He suggested that some drivers would have to invest up to £65k on a new vehicle and explained that there were no Euro compliant vehicles available to the Hackney Trade and urged the Committee to reject the proposed consultation.

Mr K Wilshire stated that Hackney drivers could face greater financial problems than Private Hire drivers if an Emissions Policy was approved as the cost of Hackney carriages were significantly higher than Private Hire Vehicles and new ones would need to be purchased. He stated that Hackney drivers were already on their knees and questioned why the Council had allowed for a Bus Station to be built within the Town Centre and yet were potentially penalising drivers of Hackneys and Private Hire Vehicles with a Low Emission Strategy. He stated that to cap the number of Taxis and PHV’s would help the trade as it would limit the amount of competition.

The Chair asked officers to draft a report for the Licensing Committee to be held on the 18^th October 2016 to recommend a survey be undertaken to explore the possibility to introduce a cap to be carried out in consultation with legal requirements.

Mr Andrew Whittles (Low Emission Strategies Limited) explained to the Committee that it was evidenced that diesel fuel emissions were carcinogenic and that a Government study had reported that 10% of all deaths on Northampton were due to air pollution. It was further noted that research had shown that pollution could contribute to the onset of Alzheimer’s and impacted on childhood cognitive development and that there was a real urge to tackle it.  He reported that current diesel cars had similar emissions as 10 year old petrol cars and noted that grants would be made available by the Government to assist towards the costs of purchasing new low emission vehicles for taxi and private hire drivers. He confirmed that there were some issues with the Euro 5 vehicles and therefore Petrol Euro 4 Diesel Euro 6 were regarded as being better and already in production. It was reported that once a new vehicle had been purchased, the financial cost of ownership would be significantly reduced in comparison to the current vehicles. Mr Whittles explained that due to the high levels of pollution and emissions in Northampton, there was still potential for County Council to be prosecuted under European Law.

RESOLVED:

That it be agreed to consult on the proposed emissions policy at Appendix A of the report.