The Taxi & General Licensing Sub-Committee of West Northamptonshire Council was scheduled to meet on 22 October 2025 to consider applications for new private hire driver licences. Councillors were asked to declare any interests they had in the items under consideration. The agenda for the meeting also included an item on excluding the press and public from the meeting while the applications were discussed.

Applications for Private Hire Driver's Licences

The Taxi & General Licensing Sub-Committee was scheduled to consider three applications for new private hire driver's licences. According to the public reports pack, the reports relating to these applications contained exempt information, as defined in paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972¹. This paragraph relates to information about individuals.

The agenda suggested that members of the sub-committee may have chosen to exclude the press and public from the meeting for these items. The reason given was:

that, if the public and press were present, it would be likely that exempt information falling under the provisions of Schedule 12A, Part I, Paragraph(s) XXXXX would be disclosed to them, and that in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Committee Members

The members of the Taxi & General Licensing Sub-Committee are Councillor Andrew Kilbride, Councillor Caroline Phillips, and Councillor Peter York, Vice-Chairman of the Council.

Other attendees scheduled to be present were James Chadwick, Ed Bostock, and Richard Woods.