TAXI licence fees could be going up if councillors vote in favour of a price hike.

At tomorrow’s (Thursday, December 5) meeting of the Planning, Rights of Way and Taxi Licensing committee, senior licensing officer, Susan Jones, will be stating the case in favour of the rises.

Ms Jones says in her report: “The committee is requested to consider the approval of revised fees for the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Regime, notably operator, vehicle, driver licences and tests.”

Ms Jones adds: “These fees have been calculated using a toolkit bt the All Wales Licensing Expert Panel.

“As in previous years the toolkit has been used with assistance from our finance team.”

“The fee toolkit calculates the cost of several different elements of the service that figure into the final total figure.”

The changes are:

  • Cost of material such as making the plate and/or badge
  • Cost of processing the licence
  • Cost of sub-committee hearings to consider individual license/application
  • Administration costs such as training, meeting, questions, complaints and compliance checks.

The changes to the fees are :

  • Vehicles (1 year) Hackney carriage private hire from £138 to £148
  • Driver licence (3 years) from £247.50 to £260, and this does not include the DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check fee.
  • Driver licence (1 year) from £140 to £150, and this does not include the DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check fee.
  • Private Hire Operators (5 years) from £398 to £405, again this does not include the DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check fee.
  • Knowledge/Competency test from £38 to £40.

If agreed the new fees would start from April 2020.