...DILEMMA RUGBY CABBIES IN A convoy of
GO-SLOW CONVOY TO REFORMS taxis
crawled through the town on Monday May 28 in an ongoing dis- pute between hackney taxi drivers and Rugby Borough Council. The authority wants to deregulate hackney licences, currently lim- ited to 61, next year. Mark Bradshaw, chair of Rugby Hackney Operators’ and Drivers’ Association (RHODA) told the Rugby Adver- tiser: “We don’t want to disrupt shoppers and workers in the town centre, but we do want to draw attention to the fact that the changes will lead to a worse
service for them - they will have to wait longer for taxis during unso- ciable hours and town centre streets will be clogged up with taxis during the day.” About 25 vehicles took part in the action, which gave way to buses so as not to dis- rupt public transport. According to RHODA many drivers already work for less than the minimum wage and that additional taxis would make the situa- tion worse. Sean Lawson, Rugby Borough Council’s head of environmental services, said: “The
laws around taxi licens- ing make it clear that we must have a very good reason to restrict the number of licences. The taxi industry in Rugby has been aware for some time that we intend to remove this restriction next April; in the meantime we have made five new licences available. “It is interesting to note that we had 28 applications for these licences. On the one hand the industry wants to keep the restrictions in place, but on the other hand they clearly want the additional licences.”
COUNCIL STICKS TO CAB LIMIT OF 283 IN SOUTHAMPTON
There will be no increase in taxis on Southampton’s city streets - after cabbies complained to coun- cillors
that more
competition would ruin their livelihoods. Councillors agreed to follow the recommen- dations of a once in three-year review by transport consultants and keep the number of hackney carriages in the city capped at 283. Clive Johnson, chair- man of
the South-
ampton Trade Associ- ation, which has around 450 members including 100 hackney carriage drivers, wel- comed the decision. He said:
inevitable really. At the present moment
“It was in
time we’ve got taxi driv- ers being booked for parking at the end of ranks because we’ve nowhere to go. There is no work out there.” Consultants Halcrow, who were
paid
£15,000 to carry out the survey, found suffi- cient
taxis were
“generally available” in the city although there was a need for
JULY 2012 PHTM
more WAVs. Nearly half the cab- bies surveyed said they would leave the trade if more licences were issued, and 84 per cent said they wanted additional and longer ranks. Ian Hall, chairman of the
our pleas has caused a lot of hardship for the trade. And the tim- ing of
the (latest) Southampton
Hackney Association, told councillors there were only 15 24-hour taxi ranks in the city with spaces for 73 taxis, leaving a short- fall of 210 spaces. He added the council had shortened the ranks in recent years. Despite opposition from the trade, three years ago the council agreed to issue 20 more lucrative taxi licences - worth up to £35,000 on the open market - in a contro- versial secret lottery exposed by the Daily Echo. Perry McMillan, from the Southampton taxi section of the Unite union, told the News: “This survey confirms what we’ve been say- ing all along. We feel the decision three years ago to ignore
survey, before the last eight new plates went on in December, shows we didn’t need them.” The survey also found more permits should be issued for taxis to work the docks, and that more needed to be done to improve access and reduce congestion. Docks owners ABP signed an agreement with the council three years ago to issue per- mits and enforce standards after con- cerns about scruffy drivers, cherry picking of fares, and allega- tions of overcharging. The permits cost £63. But the decision could be challenged as under Government guidelines Southamp- ton City Council must show that retaining a limit on the number of taxis in the city bene- fits customers. The
number of
licensed private hire vehicles is around 550.
A
DEREG MOVE IN RICHMONDSHIRE PUT ON HOLD AFTER OPPOSITION
controversial
scheme to remove the limit on taxis operating in parts of the York- shire Dales has been put on hold after cab drivers threatened to pursue a High Court legal challenge. Richmondshire Dis- trict Council has confirmed it has once again put the propos- als to deregulate the licensing of taxis out to public consultation. Taxi owners and driv- ers have objected to the proposals and took the decision to a judicial review. But the council has confirmed the legal challenge has been re- scinded by the drivers while further consulta- tions with residents, business leaders and the taxi
trade are
undertaken. Council leader John Blackie maintained the authority was satisfied it had consulted wide- ly enough during the first public engage- ment.
But he
acknowledged taxi firms felt the propos- als needed to be analysed again, and stressed the council is on “a mission to engage fully” with the public. Councillor Blackie said that since the original decision to deregulate was taken by councillors last year, there have been only 12 changes to existing plates and new licence applica- tions. He told the Yorkshire Post: “Taxi drivers claim that we will be awash with new
applications if this sys- tem is adopted - but this has
already
proved not to be the case.” The council charges £275 to license each taxi but Cllr Blackie claimed the existing limit had created an “artificial capital mar- ket with vehicle plates changing hands pri- vately for several thousand pounds.” The number of plates in Richmondshire is restricted to 65, and Cllr Blackie said the proposed deregula- tion would encourage new firms to set up and boost job oppor- tunities amid the ongoing economic cri- sis. The seven-week con- sultation will run until July 20.
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Car Safe N & J Pitt Taximeter Services Ltd 0115 978 5861 PAGE 59
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