APPROVED Minute of Licensing Committee (Special) - 13 January 2026 v2
West Dunbartonshire Council · 13 January 2026
Back to Licensing Committee — 13 January 2026 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
Page 1
LICENSING COMMITTEE At a Special Meeting of the Licensing Committee held in the Civic Space, 16 Church Street, Dumbarton on Tuesday, 13 January 2026 at 1.00 p.m. Present: Councillors Ian Dickson, Gurpreet Singh Johal, John Millar, Lawrence O’Neill, Chris Pollock and Gordon Scanlan. Attending: Christopher Anderson, Depute Clerk to the Licensing Board; Heather McLaughlin, Section Head – Licensing; Robert Mackie, Senior Licensing Officer; Lawrence Knighton, Licensing Standards Officer; Louise Allan, Licensing Assistant; and Lynn Straker, Committee Officer. Apologies: Apologies for absence were intimated on behalf of Councillors Fiona Hennebry and Hazel Sorrell. Councillor Lawrence O’Neill in Chair DECLARATION OF INTEREST Councillor Pollock declared an interest in relation to Item 6 under the heading ‘Hearing regarding possible suspension or revocation of a Taxi / Private Hire Car Driver’s Licence’ due to Mr. Muhammad Nazir’s representative, Mr Imran Anwar, being known to him, and indicated he would leave the meeting during consideration of this item. HEARING REGARDING POSSIBLE SUSPENSION OR REVOCATION OF A TAXI LICENCE A report was submitted by the Chief Officer – Regulatory and Regeneration regarding the possible suspension or revocation of a Taxi Licence held by Mr Gerard Murphy. Members first heard from Sergeant David Holmes, Police Scotland, who detailed the concerns from the Chief Inspector, Police Scotland, as to why Mr Murphy was not a fit and proper person to hold the Licence. Members then heard from Mr Murphy in support of retaining his Licence. After discussion and having heard Mr Murphy in further explanation and in answer to Members’ questions, the Committee agreed to revoke the Taxi Licence.
Page 2
DECIDED:- The Committee agreed to revoke the Taxi Licence. HEARING REGARDING POSSIBLE SUSPENSION OR REVOCATION OF A TAXI DRIVER’S / PRIVATE HIRE CAR DRIVER’S LICENCE A report was submitted by the Chief Officer – Regulatory and Regeneration regarding the possible suspension or revocation of a Taxi / Private Hire Car Driver’s Licence held by Mr Gerard Murphy. Members first heard from Sergeant David Holmes, Police Scotland, who detailed the concerns from the Chief Inspector, Police Scotland, as to why Mr Murphy was not a fit and proper person to hold the Taxi / Private Hire Car Driver’s Licence. Members then heard from Mr Murphy in support of retaining his Licence. After discussion and having heard Mr Murphy in further explanation and in answer to Members’ questions, the Committee agreed to revoke the Taxi / Private Hire Car Drivers Licence with immediate effect. DECIDED:- Committee agreed to revoke the Taxi / Private Hire Car Drivers Licence with immediate effect. EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC The Committee agreed to approve the following resolution to exclude the press and public from the meeting to allow the following item to be heard:- “That under Section 50A(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1973 the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it may involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 14 of Part 1 of Schedule 7A of the Act.” DECLARATION OF INTEREST Having earlier declared an interest in the following item, Councillor Pollock left the meeting at this point.
Page 3
HEARING REGARDING POSSIBLE SUSPENSION OR REVOCATION OF A TAXI DRIVER’S / PRIVATE HIRE CAR DRIVER’S LICENCE A report was submitted by the Chief Officer – Regulatory and Regeneration regarding the possible suspension or revocation of a Taxi / Private Hire Car Driver’s Licence held by Mr Muhammad Nazir. Members first heard from Sergeant David Holmes, Police Scotland, who detailed the concerns from the Chief Inspector, Police Scotland, as to why Mr Nazir was not a fit and proper person to hold the Taxi / Private Hire Car Drivers Licence. Members then heard from Mr Anwar, representative of Mr Nazir, in support of Mr Nazir retaining his Licence. After discussion and having heard Mr Anwar in further explanation and in answer to Members’ questions, the Committee agreed to suspend the Taxi / Private Hire Car Driver’s Licence held by Mr. Muhammad Nazir for the unexpired period of the licence, that being 2 July 2026. DECIDED:- Committee agreed to suspend the Taxi / Private Hire Car Drivers Licence for the unexpired period of the licence, that being 2 July 2026. The meeting closed at 1.28 p.m.