MY TIME SPENT IN THE TRADE
the council where we defeated all ten of their new licensing conditions with one foul swoop. Nice one…! We’ve also de- feated prosecutions against individual drivers who’d been ac- cused of one offence or another, on the substantive grounds that they didn’t do it, m’Lud…
Great fun. But also the saviour of so many licence holders’ livelihoods – which is what the NPHTA is all about. Many a licensing authority has acquiesced to one of my “famous letters” to the Chief Executive about a taxi/PHV licensing issue, and has backed down having been presented with the true legal picture – without having to go through the time, stress and expense of a court case.
TRAINING IS NOT A DIRTY WORD
speaking nowadays). We’ve never been cash-rich, that’s for sure; our company status as “not for profit” is more than accurate! And as you know, neither Bryan nor I – and nowadays director Dave Lawrie - has ever taken a salary from the NPHTA coffers. But the point is that we’ve had such genuine support from so many sources, enabling us to do great things in many quarters, and I wanted to shout my thanks from the rooftops.
That thanks extends with open arms to the current NPHTA Board members, and to all those from whom new member- ships and renewals have come in during this financially con- strained year. Your support means the world to us, in light of all the financial hardships endured by so many out there during the pandemic; the fact that you still support your truly national association cannot be praised enough as far as I’m concerned.
So what have we been doing over the past 30 years? Well, our reputation in the legal department has been very strong: with the persuasive, knowledgeable team of barristers and solicitors with whom we’ve worked, we’ve won court cases galore, against local authorities who for the most part lost their case because they ‘got it wrong’ and we had to point out to the court how ever so slightly wrong they were.
The issues: My particular favourite, of course, is the “bums on seats” scenario: the taking out of a seat from an MPV to allow access to the back row of seats. We’ve stomped all over that one, in eight separate cases, both in and out of court. Then there’s the window tint issue: oh, how tiring and boring that one is! – because so many councils haven’t got the Construc- tion and Use regs in their heads correctly, but another topic which we have successfully challenged in various local author- ities nationwide.
There have been allsorts: the disability issue, whereby a council waved a magic wand and decreed that all hackney carriages would be wheelchair accessible by a certain date. Oh, no they didn’t!! – in several districts we walked that one. Then there was
JANUARY 2021
If we had a fiver for every licence holder who told us he/she hadn’t been informed about the regulations set down by their licensing authority – and indeed the national legislation governing our industry – we’d have been able to retire years ago with a huge pension.
How many courts have informed the person being prosecuted for some offence or other, that ignorance is no defence in the law? We have therefore strived over the past three decades to try to educate members on the legislation, both nationally and locally, so that they are better informed – and often better informed than their licensing department. This is all about training, which has been part of our mantra from day one.
Industry training is a drum that the NPHTA has beat through- out its entire existence… and just under 20 years ago we were able to do something about it. We put together a training company comprising our two (then) Directors and two promin- ent and experienced people from the world of road passenger transport training, to create a company that instigated and gained government and council approval for a Level Two BTEC – VRQ (Vocationally Related Qualification) for our industry.
This BTEC has been delivered to thousands of licence holders, and new applicants, across the UK since 2003. Unlike local council training, the VRQ is a nationally recognised qualification; it provides the underpinning knowledge for the NVQ, also a recognised qualification based on the applicant’s performance and history in the industry.
Industry training – and in particular disability training – fea- tured heavily in the Task and Finish recommendations. Hope- fully in the future a new national group or committee will be devoted to this very important aspect of trade development.
EXTENSIVE INVOLVEMENT FROM DAY ONE
Looking back over the past three decades, this association has rolled its sleeves up and tackled each and every industry ‘movement’ that was going. The first of these was the Green Paper in 1994: the earliest attempt at industry reform, with the
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