Opinion
A view from the trade by B. M. ROLAND
THE NATIONAL PRIVATE HIRE ASSOCIATION 8 SILVER ST BURY BL9 0EX TEL: 0161 280 2800 FAX: 0161 280 7787 e-mail:
npha@btconnect.com
NEVER MIND THE THEORY – HOW ABOUT THE FACTS?
If you’ve read this month’s front page, you’ll know what we mean by ‘the- ory’. But you may have noticed that this year we’ve been receiving quite a lot of fact as well. In the last issue we had the results of the Exeter case, and the consultation on vehicle age limits. And course an invite for you all to get busy with the Red Tape Challenge. That was a fact; 292 responses were received, and they’re still available to be read on the Red Tape blogsite. Whilst I accept that the words were writ- ten by folk, I’m not coming to any conclusion as to which of the 292 were in fact theory, rather than common sense.
Earlier in the year the Guildford case certainly raised eyebrows all over the country, and a number of further investigations have followed that Audit Commission report.
But I wondered what the Ombudsman has been doing this year. A quick sniff has dug up two little corkers: one from Castle Point and one from West Somerset.
Let me ask you a question: How do you pay for your CRB checks? Is it part of the licence fee, or do you pay it separately? Second question: If you paid it separately, have you always paid it separately, or did it used to be part of your driver licence fee?
I am asking this question because of a complaint that was made by a licence holder against Castle Point Borough Council. It seems that a taxi driver complained to the Ombudsman because he thought he had been overcharged since 2004. He believed that he had been charged twice for his CRB criminal record check fee. Now don’t ask me why, but it would appear that in June 2003, the council
decided to charge taxi drivers a separate fee for the CRB check. Prior to that date the licence fee had included an amount for the renewal. In 2003 the drivers were notified that they would have to pay one fee for their licence and a separate fee for their CRB check.
In December of 2003 the Licensing Committee agreed a percentage increase in licence fees. The figure on which the percentage increase was based included an amount for the CRB fee, which since July of that year had been charged separately.
And all percentage increases in fees
agreed since December 2003 have been based on that wrong baseline fig- ure. So that means that since January 2004 when the increase came into account, all drivers who paid for a CRB check and a licence had been overcharged.
Are you scratching your heads just a bit? I’ll try to clarify it a little. The fee from April 2003 went up from £129 to £146. This was specifically to recov- er the cost of the badge and the CRB check. In June 2003, using delegated powers, officers decided that the CRB check should be charged separately from the 1st July that year.
But they should have
reduced the licence fee to £134, taking out the £12 for the CRB. But they didn’t. And so when the council came to do the next rise in fees, the driv- ers from July had been paying £12 extra, and the new fees increased that even higher. And so it went on in years to come.
Now I don’t know whether you are scratching your heads wondering whether something similar has happened with your council, because I seem to think I have heard of this happening in other places. Perhaps you should have a think, and an examination for yourself. But in Castle Point the Ombudsman recommended the council reimburse the driver with the cost of the “double-charging”, and should pay him £75 in respect of his time and trouble in pursuing the complaint. The Ombuds- man went on to recommend that the council take measures to remedy the injustice caused to the other taxi drivers who paid a licence fee and CRB
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PHTM JULY 2011
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