Taxi cab licence fees set for increase

PROPOSED recommendations to raise the fees for taxi cab licenses have been agreed. On Monday, Cyngor Gwynedd’s general licensing committee considered plans to raise the charges to recommended levels - subject to a consultation with the taxi industry and public notice.

The rises would allow the council to recover its costs and could mean an average increase of around 12%. Since 2013, the council has annually reviewed its fees for hackney carriage licences, private hire vehicle licences, private hire operator licences and drivers’ licences. By law, the council can make a charge to cover reasonable costs for granting a driver’s licence for a hackney or private hire vehicle, and towards costs associated for processing, administration and issuing licences.

They can also charge for granting a vehicle and operator’s licence, for inspection costs, hackney carriage stands, public notices, management and supervision of vehicles and the costs associated with application processing.

Taxi fees cannot be increased to raise income for the council - only to recoup cash for processing and administering licences.

Gwynedd’s fees were previously increased by 25% in 2013, 19.78% in 2014, and 10.78% in 2015. In 2016/17 and in 2017/18, they did not increase at all - but it was agreed to increase them at an average of 28% across the various taxi licensing fees for 2018/19.

However, during the Covid crisis, in March 2021 a recommendation was made that all taxi fees should be increased in line with inflation.

At the time that was 2.59% - although that rise was not considered “enough to fully recover the council’s costs.”

Then the authority had felt the taxi industry had “faced significant losses” during lockdowns.

It was decided not to recommend the full recovery of costs, beyond the level set in 2018/19.

However, amid recent rising inflation and higher costs of providing the taxi licensing service, the committee’s report stated “We believe there is not much choice but to increase the fees if we are to maintain the service expected by the public and the industry.”