ALL THINGS LICENSING
Article by Mike Smith, Senior Specialist for Licensing and Community Safety at Guildford Borough Council and Vice-Chair of the Institute of Licensing South East Region.
Please note that this article represents my own views which are not presented as the views of the Institute of Licensing or Guildford BC.
THE STATION SITUATION
I read with interest the letter from Elmbridge Borough Council licensed hackney carriage drivers in November’s PHTM about the difficulties faced at Weybridge Station. This is a situation I am aware of having had both groups, drivers and the licensing authority seek advice from me on this matter following similar issues at Guildford Station just a few miles away.
However, I am sure that this situation is not unique to the boroughs of Surrey and I am sure that there are concerns and frustrations from hackney carriage drivers nationally who pay a premium to use rank space at railway stations up and down the country, around private hire drivers and vehicles picking up from stations near to ranks without having to foot similar permit costs.
The question in the letter concludes with a request for help and consequently in this month’s article I wanted to explore the situation at stations and what can, and cannot be done by local authorities and others in these situations.
Plying for hire
One of the principal concerns from the hackney carriage trade is that private hire drivers are ‘plying for hire’ at stations. Plying or standing for hire is an offence under Section 45 of the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 where a determination of whether a driver is plying will depend on the circumstances of each case, particularly the actions of the driver.
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As railway stations are often private land some may not fit the definition of a ‘public place’ as defined in the 1847 Act, meaning that there is often some debate as to whether a plying case may apply.
However, as with so many things in taxi licensing this has been considered in case law with the ‘Young and Scampion’ case setting out that an area of private land can be considered to be a ‘street’ (i.e. a public place where the offence of plying for hire can be committed) if the public can reasonably expect to hail a taxi service from the location. As this, and many other, railway premises will fit this test, there can be little doubt that the public could expect to hail a taxi from a railway station rank and therefore other vehicles taking immediate hires are committing an offence. In addition, section 76 of the Public Health Act 1925 also states that the 1847 Act will apply to railway premises as if it were a rank in a street.
It is also clear from more recent cases around app- based operators that private hire vehicles appearing on an app, on a street or at a railway station ready to be booked are not plying for hire. Plying for hire can only be made out where a vehicle, other than a hackney carriage licensed in that district, takes a paying customer without prior booking, and the intention of the driver was to commit the offence by waiting for the customer in such a manner.
Consequently, whilst there is often the concern about private hire vehicles ‘plying for hire’, more often than not these are vehicles waiting, correctly or otherwise, for bookings to come in or for passengers to arrive.
That is not to say that plying never happens, and any concerns need to be reported to the licensing authority with supporting evidence so that resources can be allocated to investigate.
Railway byelaws
Railway Stations, and in fact the entire rail network, is governed by a set of ‘byelaws’ made under section 219 of the Transport Act 2000 and confirmed under schedule 20 of the Transport Act 2000 by the Secretary of State for Transport. These byelaws cover Britain’s trains, track and stations across the country.
DECEMBER 2024 PHTM
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