UNITE VIEWPOINT THE LONG ARM OF BIG BROTHER...
Well hello... as always, I’m hoping that I find you keeping well and bearing up, all things considered. I thought we’d take a well deserved break this month from the spectre that is Coronavirus. Instead I choose to examine the growing trend of over regulation and specifical-
ly some tactics being employed by a number of councils in order to silence dissent and also schemes to disproportion- ately punish licence holders for misdemeanours that have already been or are capable of being tried, considered and dealt with by the judiciary i.e. a court of law.
LOCAL AUTHORITY MEASLES
All, as far as I can see, this is being done in the name of their love of local megalomania!
It’s yet another form of what I refer to as ‘local authority measles’. So called because just like measles, these ridiculous decisions or policies, ill-conceived conditions of licence and time again the contemptuous treatment of the local cab trade from licensing officers and licensing councillors seems to spread from area to area just like a pandemic infection.
It is a national problem and almost seems like someone some- where has a hare-brained scheme and decides to implement it, almost always against the will and experienced advice of the local trade. Then it spreads - like the disease that it regu- larly is – unreasonable policies copied from authority to authority without any thought for necessity, ‘policy justifica- tion’ or relevance to the local area or trade.
Now there will be some that will say that it’s all very well just having a cheap poke at councils, who have an unenviable task, i.e. the administration and execution of the duty of taxi licens- ing locally in each and every area. But we perhaps need to look further into the fact that it’s not just what they do, it’s the way that they do it!
PENALTY POINTS SCHEMES
I will deal first with perhaps the most pernicious of all these “schemes”, which has to be the “Penalty Points” system. These are being brought in across the country by authorities in order for officers to deal with misdemeanours by way of issuing a variable amount of penalty points to licence holders from a menu-style system, with the amount depending on the transgression. There is also a ‘totting up’ element which means that when a certain amount or threshold of points is reached, then the officers can suspend or revoke the licence or refer the matter to the Licensing Committee.
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Now if all this seems fairly innocuous, I’m afraid it’s anything but! Time and again these schemes trumpet that, “
...the issuing of penalty points is not a formal sanction in its own right; it is merely an open and transparent method of how a driver will be assessed in terms of the fit and proper person test...” Well sadly whichever way the officers attempt to neatly package this, the issuing of any ‘penalty’ or points to a licensee IS a formal sanction, as it will clearly be held for reference and be taken into account in future when considering licences.
Most worryingly, there is no right of appeal against the award of penalty points, as in order to try and justify this once again they repeat, “
...this is not a formal sanction in its own right...” Doesn’t that erode a licence holder’s Human Rights? Specifi- cally, their right to a fair hearing under Article 6 of the Human Rights legislation!
In any case, many if not all of these “
...breaches of legislation or the requirements...” are already covered by national statu- tory legislation. Therefore why should a council require a ‘Penalty Points System’ at all, when they already have the powers delegated to them to utilise through national statute.
COUNCIL OFFICER MEGALOMANIA
Well my friend, the answer to that appears to be that this doesn’t seem to fit in with their agenda as it involves allowing someone else i.e. the judiciary to consider the case. This seems to support my fear of council officer megalomania.
For example, ‘driving without the consent of the proprietor’ is covered in national statute law by ‘taking without consent’; ‘pri- vate hire vehicle soliciting for hire or accepting a fare that is not pre-booked’ is equally covered elsewhere in statute as ‘plying for hire’ or ‘touting’ (which happens to be a criminal offence). ‘Driving with no insurance or inadequate insurance for the vehi- cle’ is covered under the Road Traffic Act and the list goes on...
Here’s the really dangerous and extremely troubling aspect of all this: I have recently been made aware of a council who prosecuted a licence holder in court. The case was heard, considered and dealt with by a District Judge. After the court case (hearing), the council was still clearly not content with the ‘learned’ Judge’s judgement and award, as they have chosen to serve the licence holder with further sanctions i.e. a formal written warn- ing together with ‘penalty points’. This is the reason that makes the ‘penalty points system’ so dangerous and patently unfair.
In any case, doesn’t this case fall fowl of ‘Double Jeopardy’? The double jeopardy rule says that a person cannot be tried
DECEMBER 2020
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