Taxi fees set to be reduced in Powys

TAXI driving licence fees are set to be reduced in Powys for the next financial year.

At Powys County Council’s Planning Committee meeting on Thursday, January 13, councillors will discuss and vote on the changes.

The fees are based on data from the two previous years.

In her report, Powys’ senior taxi licensing officer, Sue Jones explained that the fees for 2022/23 have been calculated on an average of the costs for
years 2019/20 before the pandemic, and 2020/21 when covid emerged.

It was agreed by the committee back in April 2021 that fees for the current financial year – 2021/22 – would be frozen.

Ms Jones said: “As anticipated, it means that fees have come out less for 2022/23. ”

She estimated that the fee changes would see a loss of £9000 in income for the authority.

Ms Jones said: “This can be absorbed by the funding already received for public protection services from Welsh Government for additional work carried out in relation to covid compliance.”

“When it comes to calculating fees for 2023/24, it will be based on our
current costs for 2021/22”

“It is expected that there will be a recovery in the fee levels as activity has returned to near normal – officers have now resumed seeing vehicles and applicants.”

She added that enforcement work had restarted and that a “streamlined online process” brought on by coronavirus would be kept.

Due to this change taking over from staff manually processing the applications, Ms Jones said that the costs will “unlikely recover” to the same levels.

“Efficiencies in processing time will free up officers to engage and assist the taxi trade especially in relation to implementation of the new Welsh Government taxi standards,” said Ms Jones.

If councillors agree the proposals, they will then be advertised in the local press allowing a 28-day period for objections to be lodged.

Ms Jones explained that any objections to the proposed fees would need to be “considered” and reported back to the committee.

Ms Jones said: “If no objections are made, then these fees will come into
effect on April 1.”

The fees for 2022/2 which don’t include the cost for DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) checks are:

Hackney carriage private hire (1 year): £130 – dropping from £148
Driver licence (3 years): £248 – dropping from £260
Driver licence (1 year) : £140 -dropping from £150
Private Hire Operators (5 years): £387 – dropping from £405.