Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Cllrs Williams, Webb and Somper. 

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 28^th January 2026.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 28th January 2026 were confirmed and signed. 

To disclose any pecuniary, other registrable or non-registrable interests as set out in the adopted Code of Conduct. In making their disclosure councillors are asked to state the agenda item, the nature of the interest and any action they propose to take as part of their declaration. Public Document Pack If required, further advice should be sought from the Monitoring Officer Public Document Pack Public Document Pack in advance of the meeting.

There were no declaration of interests.

Representatives of town or parish councils and members of the public who live, work, or represent an organisation within the Dorset Council area are welcome to submit either 1 question or 1 statement for each meeting.  You are welcome to attend the meeting in person or via MS Teams to read out your question and to receive the response.   If you submit a statement for the committee this will be circulated to all members of the committee in advance of the meeting as a supplement to the agenda and appended to the minutes for the formal record but will not be read out at the meeting. The first 8 questions and the first 8 statements received from members of the public or organisations for each meeting will be accepted on a first come first served basis in accordance with the deadline set out below.  Further information read Public Participation - Dorset Council

All submissions must be emailed in full to [email protected] by 8.30am on Monday 23^rd February 2026.

When submitting your question or statement please note that: 

•       You can submit 1 question or 1 statement.

•       a question may include a short pre-amble to set the context.

•       It must be a single question, and any sub-divided questions will

not be permitted.

•       Each question will consist of no more than 450 words, and you

will be given up to 3 minutes to present your question.

•       when submitting a question please indicate who the question is

for (e.g., the name of the committee or Portfolio Holder) 

•       Include your name, address, and contact details. Only your

name will be published but we may need your other details to

contact you about your question or statement in advance of the

meeting. 

•       questions and statements received in line with the council’s

rules for public participation will be published as a supplement to

the agenda. 

•       all questions, statements and responses will be published in full

within the minutes of the meeting.  

There was no public participation.

To consider the responses and agree a recommendation to full Council to adopt the new fees for the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire licences.

The Service Manager Licensing and Community Safety, John Newcombe introduced the report. Dorset Council was able to set local fees for taxi licensing which were set on a cost recovery basis and the last time fees were set was in 2022 when the new policy came in. The Council had a statutory duty to advertise any increases to fees set over £25. The increases in fees were advertised for two consecutive weeks in the Dorset Echo, and 5 responses had been received. A copy of the proposed fees was sent out to all taxi licence holders by newsletter. The Committee were asked to consider the representations and decide whether they approved the fee increase or not. There was a modest 7% average increase of fees, and over the three years was considered quite reasonable. He recognised that there were cost of living pressures and the cost of running taxis and insurance and he expected that this might have a knock-on effect with a potential request to increase the taxi tariff. He went through the current costs of running the service in the appendix of the report. There was an average £30,000 deficit per year which over the last 3 years had built up to around £140,000. The proposal would cover the £30,000 annual deficit going forwards and provide a small surplus of around £11,000 for the coming financial year. It wouldn’t be enough to pay off the existing deficit but would prevent it getting any worse. He went through some of the representations that had been submitted and Members considered each one on its own merits before reaching a decision.

Proposed by Cllr Jeanes, seconded by Cllr Parker.

Decision: The Licensing Committee recommended that Full Council adopt the new fees for the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licences.

To consider any items of business which the Chairman has had prior

notification and considers to be urgent pursuant to section 100B (4) b)

of the Local Government Act 1972. The reason for the urgency shall be

recorded in the minutes.

There were no urgent items.

To move the exclusion of the press and the public for the following item in view of the likely disclosure of exempt information within the meaning of paragraph 3 of schedule 12 A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended). The public and the press will be asked to leave the meeting whilst the item of business is considered.

There are no exempt items scheduled for this meeting.

There was no exempt business.