Minutes:
Councillor Giles McNeill submitted the following question to the meeting:
The Department for Transport is
looking at implementing changes to the Section 19 & 22 permit
legislation. If realised this would dramatically affect the
operation of community transport providers, such as Lincoln Area
Dial-A-Ride, a group I represent the Council on as an outside
body.
The proposed changes, if realised, will likely mean that Lincoln
Area Dial-A-Ride, and groups like it, may not be able to continue
to operate under the current permits and be forced to become
licensed as either Private Hire or Passenger Carrying
Vehicles.
The difficultly with this change is that Private Hire Vehicles are
limited to carrying 8 passengers and therefore the current Lincoln
Area Dial-A-Ride fleet would require modification to conform and
for groups currently in excess of 8 passengers would now need more
than one vehicle. The second difficulty is that with Passenger
Carrying Vehicles all drivers would need the corresponding licence,
which would not be viable for a service reliant on
volunteers.
Will you undertake to consider this matter and use your good office
to ensure that an important community service like Lincoln Area
Dial-A-Ride is not disadvantaged and forced to cease operations
because of these proposed changes in legislation?
Note: Councillor Owen Bierley declared a non-pecuniary interest as the Councils representative on the merged Age UK Lindsey and Age UK North Lincolnshire, as they owned mini-buses and therefore would be affected by any changes.
The Leader of the, Councillor Jeff Summers, responded:-
The Department for Transport are proposing changes to Section 19 and 22 permit legislation which may considerably affect community transport providers across the country.
The changes would mean that the permits could not be used by transport providers that make anything other than a token payment for their transport services. As a result many transport operators will need to license their vehicles as private hire vehicles or passenger carrying vehicles.
Private hire vehicles are limited to carrying 8 passengers so would not be appropriate for minibuses. Licensing vehicles as PCV vehicles would require all drivers (including volunteer drivers) to have a PCV license which may not be viable for operators with large numbers of volunteer drivers.
We continue to work closely with Lincoln Area Dial-a-Ride and transport colleagues from Lincolnshire County Council to monitor the proposed changes and provide support where appropriate.
This is a very serious issue for an area of sparsity and I therefore propose we contact Councillor Martin Tet of the LGA to garner his support for a review of the proposals.”
Councillor McNeill welcomed the Leader’s response and clarified there would be a raft of community transport schemes across the District, not just Dial-a-ride, affected by these proposed changes, referencing potential in Market Rasen and other communities, it was on that basis it was hoped the suggested approach would be made in the widest sense for all affected community transport schemes.
Several other Members shared with Council local schemes, they knew of, which would be affected and the considerable impact this would have on communities across the District. Some feared this would decimate Community Transport provision, the requirement would simply be too much for the sector to accommodate. It was important the Government heard this message.
It was also suggested therefore that the Leader be requested to write to the Minister concerned setting out the Council’s concerns and the potential impact on rural communities. Together with approaches to relevant MPs
In responding, the Leader indicated he was happy to make representations as considered appropriate including those suggested.