Taxi Conditions Consultation

The Council licenses hackney carriage and private hire vehicles. It imposes conditions on the vehicles licensed to protect public safety. The Council adopted a Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Policy and Guidance in March 2023. Normally, the Council would only review its policy every five years. However, a report was received from the Wealden Drivers Association requesting the Council to change its conditions on age of vehicles and tinted windows.

The licensing team at Wealden District Council undertook a consultation regarding taxi license conditions in the area. Specifically, the consultation sought views on whether tinted window restrictions should be amended. As part of the consultation, vehicle age restrictions will be considered as well as whether Hackney Carriage vehicles should have a uniform colour scheme for the bodywork.

A summary of the feedback received through the consultation is set out below:

Tinted Windows

• There was an even split between those who wanted to retain current licence conditions (64 responses) and those who want to retain it but with a proposed amendment to allow acceptably tinted windows if CCTV is fitted within the vehicle (64 responses).
• The written comments were focused on two main areas: it is difficult to buy vehicles without tinted windows as standard and passenger safety and/or comfort.

Age of vehicle

• More than twice as many (94 total) respondents to the consultation felt age restrictions should be increased to ten years for a standard vehicle and 15 years for hybrid/electric vehicles. There were 39 people who felt the current age limit conditions of nine years should be retained.
• There were notable comments made around things such as: mileage should be taken into account not just age of vehicle, extending age limits on electric/hybrids would encourage more drivers to buy them and the cost to replace a car to meet current age conditions is often prohibitive.

Hackney Carriage Bodywork colour

• The consultation asked directly if people were in favour of Hackney Carriage vehicles all being required to have the same bodywork colour: 65 said no they were not in favour, 57 said yes and 18 were not sure.

Recommendations to amend the taxi licensing conditions to take account of the consultation feedback have been put forward to Wealden District Council's Licensing Committee for consideration at the their meeting on Friday 15th March 2024.

The full committee report, with more detail about the consultation findings is available here: Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Conditions Licensing Committee report.