Andy Peters Brighton & Hove Cab Trade Association info@bhcta.co.uk www.bhcta.co.uk


Transport authorities


At the recent Trade Forum meeting here that’s attended by various trade reps, councillors, licensing officers and guests, I strongly highlighted that the biggest threat to the trade that the government has thrown at us all is ‘Transport Authorities’.


I put it bluntly to the labour councillor, who is a cabinet member for transport, and everyone else at the meeting, that these trade meetings will not exist in the future and that we will be under a faceless entity and thrown into a huge pot with our local identity destroyed.


This is even more crushing for us here in the south east because unlike surrounding areas we uniquely have a dedicated taxi/PH licensing office with five full-time licensing officers who know the drivers, and we all work closely together for the benefit of the local trade and the city’s taxi/PH service.


I will be very clear and make no apologies for constantly repeating myself: this government despises localism, which is evidenced by looming devolution and the destruction of local councils. It wants to treat the local taxi/PH trades the same way with its pathetic remedy for curing cross-border hiring by removing borders. Yep, take the borders down, bowing to the cause of ten years of chaos created by Uber.


The reason why I brought this up at the trade meeting was because I wanted full assurance that the council will take part in the consultation. I was pleased to have this confirmation from the head of licensing at the meeting that: l the council will be making a submission acknowledging the government’s intention to reduce the current 263 licensing authorities to just 70 and the importance of the subsequent effect on local licensing control and service provision.


l the proposal will be studied in detail and will take into consideration the impact to the trade and passenger safety, safeguarding local standards and enforcement, operational and financial impact.


However, I very much doubt the government will take any notice and that a decision has already been made to hand all licensing control to faceless Transport


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Authorities which will have absolutely no concept of how local taxis and private hire work. Effectively we are going through the standard ‘box-ticking’ exercise.


It is certainly going to be extremely interesting to find out what the reaction will be from other local licensing authorities.


Transport Select Committee: Jan 14 2026 A couple of points on this:


Lilian Greenwood stated: “……It is absolutely clear to everyone that the current legislation is archaic and fragmented.... We have the Town Police Clauses Act 1847,


the Local Government (Miscellaneous


Provisions) Act 1976), and then we just have a series of sticking plasters really to try to make that legislation fit for purpose. It would be far better to do a comprehensive reform and start-”


I keep reading and hearing this, but at no time has anyone actually dissected either of the Acts to show what is ‘archaic and fragmented’? I will be writing to her asking her to precisely specify where this is the case. Also, note that there is no mention at all of the London Private Hire Act 1998.


I found it quite bemusing that when asked by Dr Scott Arthur MP about not setting ‘minimum standards’ but instead setting ‘absolute standards’ her reply was:


“To just have absolute standards and not allow licensing authorities to have any variation or anything that takes local circumstances into account does not feel like the spirit of devolution.”


She continued: “I would not necessarily want to rule out that local licensing authorities could have discretion to have additional things that meet their particular issues.”


To me this smacks of hypocrisy where she stated ‘local circumstances’ because the government is hell bent on tearing down the boarders to ‘cure’ cross-border hiring by reducing the 263 local licensing authorities to just 70 to completely destroy local licensing authorities! She needs to look at what ‘local’ actually means.


Fortunately, Dr Arthur is astute and picked up on this and replied: “Setting minimum standards is just going to amplify the issue, is it not? People are just going to search for where they can get a licence easiest, and that is not at all in the best interest of consumers, is it? Are you aware of the issues?”


FEBRUARY 2026 PHTM


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