Taxi fees to increase in Powys

Some Taxi licence fees set to rise, others to fall as report shows there are less taxi drivers in Powys than before Covid-19.

At the Powys County Council Planning, Licensing and Rights of Way committee on Thursday, November 23 councillors will discuss and vote on the proposals.

If approved the potential income to the council from the fees is worth and extra and £4600 to the licensing department which equates to a rise of 3.8 per cent

The report said: “The number of current licences has increased on the last two years but have not yet recovered to pre Covid-19 levels.”

The report explains that fees are calculated using a “toolkit” devised by the All-Wales Licensing Expert Panel with assistance from the council’s finance team.

Fees from 12 neighbouring local authorities are included in the report so that councillors can compare and contrast.

On three year licences Powys proposes charging £284 which ranks it third of 13.

Of the 12 other authorities, Ceredigion Council charge £330 and Torfaen County Borough Council £365.

Some councils have much lower charges, Carmarthenshire County Council charge £137 and Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough Council charge £138.

On the five year private hire operator licences Powys proposes a new fee of £355 which places it eighth of 12 authorities.

Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council charge £115, while Ceredigion did not provide information for this type of licence.

Monmouthshire Council top the scale with a fee of £837.

The report said: “It must be remembered that it is difficult to make direct comparisons as fees will be specific to local staffing and on-costs, they also factor in the number of licences that are administered by the authority, both these can vary a great deal between authorities.

The report adds that some council’s do their own “in house” testing of vehicles at council garages which add to their costs.

The report said: “In Powys we don’t currently carry out in-house garage
checks, we rely on a recent MOT hence the higher vehicle licence fees
charged by other authorities.”

If councillors approve the changes – the new fees will go out to consultation in line with the legal requirement.

If no objections are received the changes will come into force on April 1, 2024.

The fees for 2024/2025 which don’t include the cost for DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checks are:

• Hackney carriage private hire (1 year): £150 going up from £146 this year.
• Driver licence (3 years): £284 up from £270.50 this year.
• Private Hire Operators (5 years): £355 down from £358 this year.

The current number of licences are:

• Driver licences – 475, down from 516 in 2019/2020.
• Private Hire Operators – 67, down from 69 in 2019/2020.
• Private Hire and Hackney Carriage Vehicles – 408, down from 429 in 2019/2020.