Consultation to support alignment of the Forest Heath and St Edmundsbury Taxi licensing handbooks

Audience: Public, the taxi trade and trade representative associations

This consultation is now closed. It was open from 11 September 2018 to 5 November 2018.

Have your say

You can have your say by filling in our online survey and inform the creation of the West Suffolk Taxi Licensing Policy. This is based on the draft West Suffolk Taxi Licensing Policy Handbook. The following provide helpful information for filling in the survey:

Background

As you may be aware, Forest Heath District Council and St Edmundsbury Borough Council are preparing to become a single West Suffolk Council in April 2019 and their policies need to be harmonised before this point, including the two taxi licensing handbooks.

The existing handbooks approved by the councils set out licence requirements for hackney carriage and private hire vehicles and drivers, alongside private hire telephone operators.

What are the councils proposing to change?

Almost all sections of these policies were aligned in 2017. The creation of a new West Suffolk Council will mean a single licensing authority for all of West Suffolk therefore councillors propose there should be consistent licensing requirements across West Suffolk.

Almost all sections of these policies were aligned between Forest Heath District Council and St Edmundsbury Borough Council in 2017. The remaining policy areas of difference are age of vehicle requirements, livery, byelaws and new benchmarking guidance for operators.

This survey seeks feedback on the main changes proposed which are:

  • vehicle age
  • zones
  • other minor changes to policy document.

Will vehicles be able to operate across West Suffolk?

Private hire taxis will be able to operate across the wider West Suffolk area. We expect that hackney carriage vehicles will continue to operate within their current areas. This is because the areas of Forest Heath and St Edmundsbury are taxi licensing ‘zones’ that will be kept in place until such a time as full review and separate public consultation can take place. Please refer to the frequently asked questions below for more information on these zones.

Any questions?

You can find out more about taxi licensing requirements and the proposed changes by looking at our taxi licensing policy questions and answers