This rings a bell
Reigate council to consider unusual licence for motor trike to do sightseeing tours of boroughhttps://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey ... e-22846530The three-seater trike could be used for tours of landmarks around Reigate, Redhill, Horley and other parts of the borough
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Image: Martin Ordish/Get SurreyA man has submitted a licensing application for a motor trike that he plans to use to take people on sightseeing tours of Reigate and Banstead.
The licensing committee at Reigate and Banstead Borough Council (RBBC) has to decide, at a meeting on Wednesday (January 26), whether the 1500cc Rewaco RF1 Motor Tricycle, purpose built with three seats, is suitable for a private hire licence.
Submitted by Martin Ordish, the application is highly unusual and represents an opportunity for the council to set a precedent about whether such vehicles are appropriate for use in the borough for private hire. The trike has similar controls to a car in that it has a clutch, brake, accelerator and gears to change, but the steering is done using handlebars like a motorbike.
Mr Ordish's business plan, according to documents submitted to the committee, "is to provide pre-booked tours around the borough and local landmarks".
Photos submitted as part of the application show the driver would sit in the front seat while two passengers would sit in seats directly behind, with foot rests and a bar each to hold onto. Photos also show an item that appears similar to a sleeping bag wrapped around a passenger's legs, demonstrating measures for colder weather.
There are no other motorcycles or motor tricycles licensed by RBBC at present and one of the main issues the council has to consider is around public safety; a report to the licensing committee states that the council's current licensing policies which govern the safe use of four-wheeled vehicles for private hire are impossible to apply to the trike.
Among the major issues is that the council's depot where MOTs are carried out on private hire vehicles would not be able to issue a certificate to confirm it is safe because its current inspection regime is not suited to it.
The report to the committee states: "The council's current Private Vehicles, Drivers and Operators Policy (February 2018) is based on a private hire vehicle which is a four-wheeled vehicle with doors and windows.
"As such a motor tricycle does not conform to many of the current standard conditions attached to the operation of a private hire vehicle. In considering the application a different view is required on appropriate safety measures, as the passengers are not carried inside it, but on the vehicle.
"The vehicle fails to meet most of the vehicle criteria of our current licensing policy."
The committee will decide on Wednesday whether to grant the licence "subject to such conditions as are consistent with the safe operating of the vehicle that ensure the safety of the fee-paying public", or whether to reject the application.
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