Councillors have delayed plans to make CCTV cameras mandatory for Wealden taxis, after calling for a longer consultation period.
On Friday (September 20), Wealden District Council’s licensing committee chose to extend a period of consultation on plans which could see internal-facing CCTV systems become a mandatory requirement for anyone seeking a Hackney Carriage or private hire licence from the authority.
While officers had recommended that the committee support the introduction of these new requirements, councillors had concerns about the low rate of responses from both residents and members of the taxi trade.
Suggesting further consultation, Cllr Glynn White (Lib Dem) said: “In terms of the numbers, I think it is a very poor response. I don’t know where this consultation was, I never found it.
“Personally I would propose that we do it again, extend it to try and reach a higher number of people.”
Not everyone on the committee felt the same way, however. Cllr Geoffrey Draper (Con) said: “The drivers — every single one of them — and their controllers had the opportunity to comment either yay or against.
“If they didn’t take that opportunity to have their say I don’t see why we as a council should incur further costs and time delay in going back and trying to encourage them to say something.”
Ultimately, however, the majority of the committee felt further consultation would result in a sounder decision, so chose to defer discussion until this had taken place.
Councillors also had some concerns about some of the details about how the roll out of CCTV systems would work.
For example, officers had suggested that executive and VIP hire vehicles be exempted from requiring CCTV. Members questioned whether this would be appropriate.
In light of this officers suggested the committee support the change in principle but commit to reviewing the exact conditions at a later date. Councillors ultimately opted to defer their decision instead, however.
Great & there’s absolutely NO need for CCTV in Wealden Taxis .We are Not Rotherham & don’t get the same problems,,only 8 percent of councils have made it mandatory in the entire country.This is a massive expense the drivers would have to pick up with NO help from the council
Isn’t needed. More expense in a time where fuel and costs are on the rise already
Cllr Geoffrey Draper is either misinformed or his comments are ill-judged, The Wealden drivers association which represents all Hackney and Private drivers as well as the operators within Wealden have been vociferous in their opposition over the last two years when this idea was first put forward, the original consultation was better hidden than the fabled lost arc of the covenant.
The association voted no to the introduction of CCTV so was their vote counted as 1 objection or over 300 which is the number of driver/operators within Wealden?