The Licensing Committee of South Kesteven Council is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, 30 September 2025. The committee is expected to review minutes from a prior meeting, and to discuss reports from the Licensing Officer relating to the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976¹.

Here are the topics that are scheduled to be discussed:

Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976

The agenda includes three reports from the Licensing Officer regarding the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976. The Act includes provisions about the licensing of taxis and private hire vehicles. The agenda indicates that the press and public may be excluded during the consideration of these items, because of the likelihood that otherwise exempt information would be disclosed to them.

Street Trading Policy

The committee is scheduled to note the decision to suspend the council's Street Trading Policy and the work being done to refresh the policy. The council's current Street Trading Policy was adopted by Cabinet in June 2022, replacing the previous policy and including an enhanced application process. The report pack states that the current period to process a street trading permit is six weeks from the date of application.

According to the report pack, a decision was made by the Chief Executive using emergency powers to suspend the existing Policy for up to six months from 25 July 2025, to allow a review to be undertaken. A refreshed draft Street Trading Policy is expected to be presented for consideration to the Committee in due course.

Taxi Licensing

The Assistant Director (Leisure, Culture and Place), whose name is given in the minutes of the previous meeting as Karen Whitfield, is scheduled to update the Committee on work being undertaken in respect of taxi licensing. The report pack states that there has recently been concern raised about drivers working in the district from other areas, and that the Minister responsible for taxi licensing is being asked to look at how a legal loophole could be closed at a national level. The report pack also states that work is being undertaken to monitor the trade in all four towns and enforce repeat offenders, and that dialogue is taking place with Lincolnshire County Council in respect of temporary taxi ranks and their location. The report pack states that two workshops are being arranged for the taxi trade to attend, one in Grantham and one in Stamford, for members of the trade to raise any issues they have.

Minutes of the meeting held on 2 September 2025

The minutes of the meeting held on 2 September 2025 are included in the report pack. At that meeting, the committee considered a report concerning whether a driver remained a fit and proper person to hold a Dual Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Drivers Licence, having failed to meet the requirements of the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy regarding convictions. The Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy sets out the council's requirements for taxi and private hire vehicle licensing. The committee decided to depart from its policy in this instance, bearing in mind the specific domestic circumstances of the offence and the support and character references that the driver provided. The committee decided that the driver was a fit and proper person to hold a licence, and issued a warning to the driver in respect of their future behaviour.

The minutes also record that Councillor Robert Leadenham, Vice-Chairman of the Committee, raised an issue linked to taxis and referred to an email that he had sent to South Kesteven Licensing Team as well as Melton Borough Council in respect of issues that he had witnessed in respect of unlicensed taxis picking up customers from the Forbidden Forest Festival that was located at Belvoir Castle, which is situated on the borders of Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. Councillor Leadenham said he had major concerns in respect of the use of unlicensed taxis picking up customers at this location and that he had seen instances of this happening over the years that the festival had been at Belvoir Castle. He asked for the Committees approval to continue to work with Officers from South Kesteven and Melton Borough Council to try and come to a solution to help address the problem, and members agreed to this.