FIT AND PROPER


BLACKBURN CABBIE WITH POINTS LOSES COUNCIL APPEAL OVER LICENCE BAN


A Blackburn cabbie with points on his driving record has lost his appeal against losing his taxi licence. Blackburn with Darwen Council defended an appeal by licensed taxi driver Iqbal Master, who lost his licence due to speeding and traffic offences. Blackburn Magistrates’ Court heard Master currently has 11


points on his driving licence, which he had failed to notify the council about, and also had previous complaints on his record. The magistrates told him: “You have a number of recent traffic offences and in particular five points in 2022 for speeding on the motorway. This occurred within the two-year period before your


licence was reviewed and revoked. “We find the council’s decision was in line with its policy.” Cllr Jim Smith, said: “The council has a duty of care to protect local people who travel by


taxi,


something we take very seriously. Blackburn Magistrates’ Court also awarded the council costs of £689.50 which Master must pay.


BATH CABBIE HAS LICENCE REVOKED FOR MAKING THREAT THAT LEFT SEN CHILD IN TEARS


A Bath and NE Somerset Council licensed taxi driver who made a threat to a child with special needs has been stripped of his licence. The driver had been doing school runs for the child, and said that he made the threat in the summer to stop the “agitated” child kicking the doors and windows in the car. He stopped the car on the journey home from school, opened the child’s car door and said: “Please stop. If you don’t stop, you stay


here in the middle of the forest with the wolves.” The minutes of the meeting in November have been published. The taxi driver said he had been trying to calm an unsafe situation and that the child had also kicked her school escort and he thought it would be unsafe to drive. But the SEN co-ordinator at the school said the child - who has “complex emotional needs” - had been “visibly scared” to get in the


LIVERPOOL ENFORCEMENT ISSUED 98 FPNs TO SMOKING CABBIES LAST YEAR


Last year Liverpool City Council Licensing Enforcement issued 98 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) to cabbies smoking in their vehicles. It’s an offence to smoke in a licensed vehicle at any time – includ- ing when the driver isn’t working and using the vehicle personally. Most of the drivers who have received FPNs, either directly or by post, paid within 15 days in order to


PHTM JANUARY 2024


take advantage of the reduction in cost from £50 to £30. If the penalty is not paid within 29 days of the offence, then a court summons is issued. Two Sefton private hire drivers who chose to ignore the FPNs where recently summonsed to court. Both were fined £200, with £150 costs and £80 victim surcharge – totalling £430 for each driver..


taxi because the driver had been shouting at her from the window. The driver said he had to raise his voice because the child was far away, but said he did not yell. The SEN co-ordinator added that the child had mentioned several times she felt the taxi driver was not kind to her. The driver accept- ed that he had also threatened to leave the child on a previous occasion when the child had also been “agitated,” but said that the escort and mother had approved of his actions on that occasion. But he accepted that the child and her school escort had been upset by the incident in the summer. The driver had attended a safeguarding course after the incident, but said he hadn’t understood it all due to a language barrier and didn’t remember much. BANES Council’s licensing sub- committee ruled the driver “does not have the appropriate judge- ment of how to deal with children he is responsible for transporting” and stripped him of his HC driver and PH licence.


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