THE WAY I SEE IT


WOLVERHAMPTON: CROSS-BORDER NIGHTMARE ORWELL-OILED MACHINE?


As a tremendous amount has been said in recent days/weeks/months about the licensing situationinWolverhampton – and this edition of PHTM has turned out to be rather Wolverhampton-centric – what bet- ter licensing officer to have a chatwith than John Bamber, Senior Licensing Compliance Officer for the City ofWolverhampton.


Because many of the mainstream media, including this mainstream(!) industry publi- cation, has been accused of Wolver- hampton-bashing lately, we thought it only fair and equitable that “the man on the other side of the desk” should have his say. And so he has, in great detail and with pas- sion and enthusiasm.


But first a bit of background: John Bamber hails from Liverpool and has worked in local government for over 30 years including pre- vious roles such as Principal Licensing Enforcement Officer. He’s been married to Jan for 30 years; they have two adult chil- dren. He says his main hobby is travelling the UK as they own a motorhome.


John joined the staff of Liverpool City Coun- cil in 2001. Over the next 16 years he dealt with virtually every aspect of local authority licensing including public entertainment licensing (pre-the 2003 Licensing Act); street trading; pet shop licences, the lot. By far the largest volume of work entailed the overseeing of taxi and private hire licensing, for which John soon became a strong expo- nent of training for all licence holders in the district.


Ultimately John became Principal Licensing Enforcement Officer at Liverpool, develop- ing training programmes for both hackney and private hire drivers; working in partner- ship with the trade and with GoSkills, the sector skills council of which John was a Board member, to develop further training programmes; and recognising the need for police officer training targeted at hackney and PHV legislation, in connection with which he co-wrote a course on practical inspection and enforcement.


HORSES FOR COURSES


Against a backdrop of increasing private hire licences being granted across the UK, City of Wolverhampton Council sought to develop a national compliance unit to deliver operations across all areas where vehicles licensed byWolverhampton oper- ate. The council deliberately targeted their recruitment to attract the best officers in


36 John Bamber


the UK to spearhead the new compliance unit, and John with his impressive back- ground was naturally interested in this opportunity.


He is responsible for the establishment of compliance and regulatory checks on Wolverhampton vehicles operating out of area.When we’ve had occasion to speak on the phone you will have found John any- where from Sheffield to Southampton and further afield.


At this point I go all “John Humphrys” on him and ask John, “Well, what about this? – and what aboutthat?” – being devil’s advocate as usual,mainly looking for a justification for their swelling licensing coffers. John speaks with nothing but praise for Wolverhamp- ton’s licensing team and their policies. He insists that the council is “recovering the rea- sonable costs of the licensing function – no more”. In fact he says that their licensing fees have just been reduced this year and a further reduction is likely for 2019.


He says: “Wolverhampton has made a very heavy investment in the expedient delivery of licences; for example, it is one of fewcouncils which offer a fully online application system.


“Our licensing service demonstrates best practice within the multi-agency environ- ment; we have established strong relationships with the districts in which our licence holders are sub-contracted to work. We also have good connections with the area’s police force and the Driver and Vehi- cle Standards Agency (DVSA).


“Further, ours is the first local authority to appoint a Senior Licensing and Compliance Officer with specific responsibility for safe- guarding.


“As it stands this council looks after the best interests of all; they look after their staff, their terms and conditions are the best in the country, and they’re prepared to pay. Currently there are over 40 officers in


the team, and they continue to make fur- ther investments in IT and staff.


“What our council is doing is entirely law- ful; that was determined by the Milton Keynes case – we’ve had the best legal advice in the country. We have a robust approach to the licensing procedure, which is why we often achieve turnaround times of 24-48 hours to determine the fit and proper status of applicants.”


THE WAY IT REALLY WORKS


Hang on – how can he justify the process- ing of licence applications sight-unseen? “Oh, they’re not unseen – our training offi- cer has sight of candidates before the on-line application is processed. In addi- tion to this, experienced licensing authority officers will undertake a face-to- face interview and immigration check with every applicant before any licence is issued.” (Check out our article about the Wolverhampton training officer in this edi- tion.)


John has every admiration for their “knowl- edgeable” Chair of Licensing, Alan Bolshaw, who stated recently in the local press that the requirement for operators, drivers and vehi- cles to operatewithin their licensing areawas antiquated, non-business friendly and out of keeping withmodern practice in the industry.


John summarises: “There will always be new challenges to address, but we have a great team of experienced officers to meet those challenges. We will continue to expand on the training offered, not only in Wolver- hampton and other licensing authorities but to regional police forces and British Trans- port Police. The ongoing programme of regular, scheduled operations and ad hoc compliance inspections around the country will continue.


“Our digital system, robust back office and compliance strategy is still only operating at a small fraction of the capacity it can accommodate. Many other councils contin- ue to treat the trade as “cash cows”, offering poor outdated services that can often see applications taking months and even years to determine.


“Whilstwe remain as the only council provid- ing businesses with an opportunity to grow tomeet their customer needs, we expect the demand for our services to remain high.”


Tell youwhat: they’re going to be very busy! AUGUST 2018


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