ROUND THE COUNCILS CAMBRIDGE:
JERSEY: WHAT COLOUR SHOULD TAXIS BE?
Cambridge City Council has put a call out for views on the future design of the taxis operating on its streets. The Cambridge News reports that Councillors agreed in October last year that all hackney car- riages should carry a livery.
It is argued that a standard livery will help make it easier for residents to dif- ferentiate between private hire vehicles and official city hackney carriages. The council also suggests that a new livery will improve the appearance of the taxi fleet and
“enhance the city’s image”. Residents had until March 26 to give their views on a new Cambridge taxi de- sign. Councillors wanted to
know if cars should be black, sil- ver, white or another colour and on which parts of the vehicle.
SCOTTISH BORDERS: DRIVERS TO PROVE THEY ARE FIT TO DRIVE
Taxi drivers in the Borders are facing a race against time and a £160 bill to prove they are medi- cally fit to drive. New rules brought in by Scottish Borders Council are forcing all taxi drivers to undergo the same medical assessments as those legally required of bus and lorry drivers. The examinations, which start at £160, will follow criteria prescribed by the DVLA and cover a range of conditions, including diabetes, psychiatric illness, drug and alcohol dependence, cardiac related illnesses and sleep disorders. The move has been slammed by Gala- shiels taxi firm owner Graham Gray. He said: “We have to obtain a medical by April 1. The nearest place we can get this is in Edinburgh and if they need to access our doctor’s records it will likely cost a lot more than the £160. “The first most of us
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drivers learned about this medical require- ment was last week when we all received letters.” Last year, the council suspended the badge of a taxi driv- er pending medical evidence from his doctor that he had been assessed to Grade 2 standards. The unnamed driver lodged an appeal at Selkirk Sheriff Court, claiming there was no legal requirement for such a demand and that the council had no formal policy to that effect. The Sheriff deter- mined last June that the council request was not unreason- able and dismissed the driver’s appeal. However, the judge commented that it was “unfortunate” the council had no published policy of the medical stan- dards required of its licensed drivers. “The Sheriff’s com- ments reinforce the need for such a poli- cy,” stated SBC licensing solicitor
Ron Kirk. Mr Kirk revealed that the council working group concluded the need for the more rigorous medical examinations “in the interests of public safety and in line with the council’s continued efforts to improve standards generally”. He added: “For the avoidance of doubt- the costs of ob- taining a medical assessment should be met by the appli- cant in all cases.” All drivers aged 18 to 45 are to be medi- cally assessed to the new standard when submitting licence renewal applications. From age 45 on- wards, drivers will be reassessed every five years, while those aged 65 and over will be re-assessed annually.
It will also be manda- tory on application forms for all licence holders to report “any disability or medical condition which may affect their ability to drive”.
NEW ‘KNOWLEDGE’ TEST
Prospective taxi drivers in Jersey will now have to com- plete a ‘knowledge’ test.
ITV News reports
that changes to pol- icy now means that there will be one test for candidates, instead of two sepa- rate tests. Previously taxi driv- ers had to do a
driving test (in a car) and a knowledge of the island test (in an office). Now, candi- dates will have to carry out the knowl- edge test
whilst
driving in the car. The Minister for Infrastructure says this is to make the test shorter and less arduous on appli- cants.
Deputy Eddie Noel, Minister for Infras- tructure, said: “We believe this update to the knowledge test will be wel- comed by pros- pective drivers. The new format makes it more like real life, by mirroring the re- quest for a driver to take a passenger to specific addresses.”
HIGHLANDS: DRIVERS’ LIVELIHOODS ENDANGERED
Taxi drivers in the north have accused the council of endangering their livelihoods by over- charging them for licences and failing to cap the number of cabs on the streets. According to
the
Aberdeen Press and Journal, official fig- ures show fees for taxi licences in the Highlands can reach more than double the equivalent charges in neigh- bouring areas. In Aberdeen, a taxi driver’s licence costs £105 for three years, over the border in Aberdeenshire it is £88, and £98 in Argyll & Bute. By comparison, a driver in Inverness or Dingwall can expect to pay £272 – the highest of all the surrounding regions. Although Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire are more expensive for taxi operator or vehicle licences – a separate charge – north charges are
again near the top at £422.
In Perth and Kinross, the same licence costs £275, Dundee is £230 – and even in Glasgow,
it is
lower at £402. That does not include additional charges to put a taxi on the road includ- ing external plates, identification badge, vehicle inspection, and meter tests that can add hundreds to the total bill. The chairman of the Inverness Taxi Al- liance, Andrew Mac- Donald, claimed the council increased the number of taxis from about “300 in 2010 to 450 in 2018”.
He said: “Our liveli- hoods are being swept out from under our feet. The council is blatantly ignoring the situa- tion, they refuse to cap licences be- cause they would need an unmet demand survey.” Raising tariffs also dealt another blow
to the trade in the city according to Mr MacDonald as “the council are unneces- sarily penalising the trade and the public by these irrational in-creases”. A Highland Council spokesman said: “There is a require- ment to ensure that the total amount of such fees is sufficient to meet the expens- es incurred by them which includes the cost of administering and enforcing the taxi and PHC licens- ing scheme. “At the last taxi tariff review a decision was taken by the Highland Licensing Committee to
in-
crease the taxi tariff. “This was taken purely to bring the maximum charge per running mile at Tariff 1 into line with the Scottish national average of £1.80, as Highland was previ- ously one of the lowest in Scotland and had not been increased for a num- ber of years.”
APRIL 2018
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