Andy Peters Brighton & Hove Cab Trade Association
info@bhcta.co.uk www.bhcta.co.uk
I recently met up with Sian Berry, Green Party MP for Brighton Pavillion along with my trade colleague Jeff Howell, from Streamline Taxis, jointly presenting 80 years of local trade experience between us (I keep saying I must get a proper job). Joining us was Green Cllr Kerry Picket, who is a regular attendee at our Trade Forum meetings, and arranged by delightful Matt from the Green Party Hub in Brighton.
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This followed an email I sent to Sian regarding the current trade issues, forever mistakenly referred to as ‘cross-border hiring’ which is actually ‘predominantly out of area working’ (as I keep banging on about) and the government’s death wish on the trade where it intends to remove local licensing and hand it over to Transport Authority faceless entities.
We learnt that Sian comes from a family taxi business background in Cheltenham and actually worked in a taxi office in her teens (paper, pen and radio) so that was good to know! I won’t go into every detail that we spoke about but it covered a good hours’ worth of Jeff and me moaning about what is going on with hundreds of out-of-town cars predominantly working here and emphasising the recent increase of Portsmouth cars working in breach of their respective licensing conditions (more on this further down).
Real emphasis was made on the growing dreaded fear that is spreading in the trade here and across the country of the government clearly preferring to support Uber in its pledge to take over the trade and completely control it. Am I exaggerating? No, the evidence being presented each week clearly shows this along with this government clearly despising localism.
Sian was very keen to attend out next Trade Forum bun fight, if available, which is encouraging, but I could not assure her that I would be on my best behaviour.
Jeff and I considered that the meeting with Sian and Kerry was productive, even if it was to just have the opportunity to provide information from a local perspective on how things are. Ironically, when we both left the meeting and stepped outside, two Chichester, three Lewes and one Portsmouth PHVs passed us by the doorway in convoy. I thought I saw the driver of the last one stick two fingers up to us… or that could have been much over-active imagination.
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At this point I do need to state that I also wrote to Peter Kyle, Labour MP for Hove and Portslade, who is my MP, and also Chris Ward, Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven. I explained in detail about the trade issues and Peter Kyle was good enough to provide me with a supportive response including: “Hopefully you remember that I was a supporter of what I called ‘levelling the playing field’ to help taxis against the rise of Uber. I now regularly see many, many out of town cars, so I also take your point. I love that Brighton and Hove taxis take such pride in their work/cars/role in the City.”
I did not receive a response from Chris Ward MP.
Increasing number of Portsmouth PHVs Last month I wrote about councillors in Portsmouth who stated concerns regarding the amount of Wolverhampton PHVs working in their city, which is quite ironic really because we have seen an increase in Portsmouth PHVs here. But the rub is that many of these Portsmouth drivers actually live in Brighton & Hove, similarly many Chichester, Lewes and South- ampton PHV drivers live here too. Quite clearly these drivers do not have ability, or cannot be bothered more likely, to reach the required level to gain a Brighton & Hove licence and so choose to go to softer areas to gain a licence and then predominantly work here.
And what’s the reason for that? Well, it’s unquestion- ably down to those areas such as Portsmouth not requiring an extensive topographical Knowledge Test like we have in Brighton & Hove, applied equally to drive a PHV or hack on a Dual Driver Badge, because councillors in those areas fully advocate that satnav is best! I won’t dwell on that point because I could fill up several pages, but my usual response to this is that if you go to a three star Michelin restaurant you don’t expect the chef to look up on YouTube how to cook your dinner.
However, recently there’s been a clear pattern of Ports- mouth drivers blatantly removing door livery, which is a condition of licensing, and over the past three weeks I’ve provided six reports of drivers doing this. Now to give Portsmouth licensing credit where it’s due, I’ve received replies stating the drivers have been warned and gratitude for providing the reports, requesting I continue sending them. My reply to this was: “OK, but that I shouldn’t have to” - this highlights the issue of allowing magnetic door signs that can be easily removed when the driver works predominantly out-of- sight and out-of-mind of respective local licensing enforcement, if that actually exists in the first place!
APRIL 2026 PHTM
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