Increasing licensing fees for Chichester taxis is being considered

Legally, the cost of licensing the district’s hackney carriage and private hire vehicles is supposed to be fully covered by income from fees and charges.

But a £23,700 shortfall is predicted for 2024/25.

During the pandemic, in an effort to make things easier for the drivers, the council didn’t increase the fees.

By the end of 2020/21, the cost gap stood at £102,650.44. Two years later it was down to £74,884.46 – still quite a hefty shortfall.

In February 2024, it was agreed that a 37% increase in the cost of licensing fees would be introduced, spread over two years.

But, during a meeting of the cabinet on Tuesday (March 11), members were told that the 18% increase for 2025/26 would not be enough, and supported the idea of adding another 10% on top of that.

Iain Ballantyne (Lib Dem The Witterings), chair of the general licensing committee, said: “Sometimes these issues are matters of presentation. If you present this argument as an increase of 10%, that worries everybody to quite some considerable extent. But when you look at the actual cost to the driver per week, which is a maximum of 49p, this isn’t an amount of money that’s going to be hurtful to the trade.”

A 28-day consultation into the proposed increase will be held. After that, should all go as planned, the application cost for a one-year licence for drivers with a dual hackney carriage/ private hire licence will rise from £166 to £216.38, while renewing a one-year licence will rise from £134 to £174.67.

A three-year licence will rise from £369.50 to £481.65, with a renewal rising from £337.50 to £439.93.