A DECISION over a Merseyside taxi firm’s request for a Warrington operator’s licence has been deferred.

The council received an application and formal request from Bootle-based Delta Merseyside Limited in November.

Officers were satisfied, based on legal advice, that subject to a basic Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and the applicant attending a child sexual exploitation awareness course that it could be granted.

But a report to the licensing committee said the proposed operating model would require the council to depart from its hackney carriage and private hire policy in relation to imposed conditions.

The committee voted to defer a decision during its meeting at the Town Hall on Tuesday.

Ahead of the vote, committee chair Cllr Pauline Nelson said: “I would like to defer this decision to get external legal advice and to consider any further conditions that could be imposed and to delegate the matter to a sub-committee for a decision to be made as soon as possible.

“This is rather than bringing it back to a full committee where it would take longer.

“As you know, we have a very strict thing in place for our drivers and I just want to make sure that if there are any other conditions we can impose, we can actually impose them, just to be fair, because we don’t really know how many taxis will be registered in Warrington and have the same conditions as we have on our taxis.”

Solicitor Keith McKinney, who has been advising Delta, told the committee his client is ‘fit and proper’ and is happy to comply fully with conditions, including one related to a DBS check.

“If a DBS check is required for all of the directors of the company, we do not want that to be the thing that holds up this application,” he added.

The committee voted to get external legal advice and to defer the matter to a sub-committee as soon as possible.