Test Valley Borough Council's Licensing Committee is scheduled to meet on Thursday 2 October 2025 at The Annexe, Crosfield Hall, Romsey. The committee will be considering a revision to the Taxi Licensing Policy and reviewing the minutes from their previous meeting. The meeting will be audio streamed, and members of the public can attend and speak if they have notified the Legal and Democratic Service by noon on the working day before the meeting.

Taxi Licensing Policy

The committee will be considering a recommendation to make a minor revision to the existing Taxi Licensing Policy regarding restricted private hire driver licences.

The current policy allows the council to issue a restricted private hire driver licence for drivers who only transport:

• Prearranged school children
• Children with special educational needs
• Social services clients

The proposed amendment would extend this category to include other specialist passenger transport services of a social care nature. This was requested by Driving Miss Daisy, a company that specialises in the provision of a bespoke care and companionship service . The report states that Driving Miss Daisy's franchisee operating in Romsey is struggling to recruit drivers, and they believe that the local area knowledge test is the primary obstacle.

According to the report, other local authorities have already taken similar steps.

Consultation with other local authorities has been undertaken and Portsmouth City Council – where Driving Miss Daisy is based – advise that they have previously exempted drivers working for this operator from the requirement to sit a knowledge test.

The report notes that a safeguard against potential abuse of the revised policy would be to require that officers are satisfied that any driver applicant seeking a restricted licence provide evidence that they will only be undertaking work of a specific type, and that without such evidence a licence will not be issued.

The proposed revised policy states that:

The driver is restricted to only perform prearranged school, special educational needs, social care or social services transport. The licence holder may only conduct regular pre-booked operator work other than that detailed above when they have completed a local area knowledge test, at which point the licensing authority will lift the restriction on their licence.

Minutes from the previous meeting

The committee will be asked to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 29 May 2025 as an accurate record.