North Northamptonshire Hackney Carriage de-zoning and byelaw review

Overview

On 14 September 2023 the North Northamptonshire Council Executive Committee agreed to carry out a consultation process to inform the decision making in relation to the matter of the potential removal of hackney carriage administration and enforcement zones within the Authority’s area.

Hackney Carriage zones are the result of changes to Local Authority areas and the restrictions of historic hackney carriage legislation.

In April 2021 when North Northamptonshire Council was formed as a unitary authority to replace the former areas of Corby, East Northamptonshire, Kettering and Wellingborough, the pre-existing legislation meant that the former authority areas still had to continue as zones for hackney carriage licensing rather than transitioning to one area. This means that there are currently four separate licensing zones for hackney carriages.

Implications of Zones

The existence of hackney carriage zones means that everything relating to the administration and enforcement of hackney carriages must be defined to each zone. This includes fares, fees and charges, policy, documentation and bye laws.

From a hackney carriage proprietor or driver perspective, it means that their licence only applies to one zone. To be able to ply for hire in a hackney carriage across North Northamptonshire, the vehicle and driver must have a licence for each zone, so four licences would be required to cover the whole district with the associated tests and checks relevant to those areas.

From the travelling public perspective, while vehicles may appear to be North Northamptonshire vehicles, a hackney carriage licensed in one zone in North Northamptonshire cannot be flagged down in another zone. Similarly a hackney carriage from one zone cannot pick up fares from taxi ranks in another zone.

Finally, the four former authorities had different vehicle standards, so while Kettering and Corby each have a complete hackney carriage fleet of wheelchair accessible vehicles, Wellingborough and East Northamptonshire do not. While the Authority’s new policy requires that all new hackney carriages are wheelchair accessible, this will take time to impact on the whole fleet so, in the meantime, the removal of zones will allow these existing vehicles to operate across the whole Authority area.

Current government guidance advises against the continuation of hackney carriage zones to remove any confusion for customers and increase efficiency.

The full Executive report dated 14 September 2023 details the background to, the proposed changes, and other options considered.

The Consultation

The Executive have agreed a consultation period of 12 weeks, for evidence to be gathered to support the decision making process. At the end of the 12 week period the responses will be gathered together and presented to the Licensing and Appeals Committee for their consideration. A report will then be presented to the Executive, which will make the final decisions.

If the Executive approve the dezoning, then this process will be aligned with the replacement of the exisiting former authority hackney carriage bye laws, with a new set for North Northamptonshire. If the decision is not to remove the zones, then a separate process to update the exisiting bye laws will be undertaken.

Have your say by completing the survey via the link below.  Alternatively, responses can be sent in by:

Email to: taxilicensing.kbc@northnorthants.gov.uk

Or post to:
North Northamptonshire Council (Kettering Licensing),
Bowling Green Road,
Kettering
NN15 7QX

If you are responding by email or post please add a subject line:

Proposed dezoning consultation – xxx area (and add either Corby, East Northamptonshire, Kettering or Wellingborough).

This consultation closes at midnight, 21 January 2024.

For information about how consultation and engagement responses are managed, please see the consultation and engagement privacy notice.