PROTEST PLIGHT MORE PROTESTS AS PRIVATE HIRE DRIVERS IN SANDWELL CALL FOR ACTION OVER LICENSING ISSUES
The continuing dispute between private hire drivers and Sandwell Council has seen another protest take place in response to a perceived lack of understanding by Sandwell Council around the granting of local authority contracts as well as the red tape |sur- rounding licensing. They claim the local authority has failed to review licence fees and charges, which they say are forcing taxi drivers to seek their licences in more competitive councils, such as Wolverhampton City Council. According to the Express and Star, more than 100 private hire drivers joined a protest outside Sandwell Council house on Tuesday, 24 May, to voice their continued demands for the council to talk to them about long delays and high prices for licence renewals in the borough. It was the latest in a number of protests by members of the Sandwell Private Hire Drivers Association (SPHDA), following on from a go-slow protest around the streets of West Bromwich and other parts of the borough which took place on May 4. According to figures from last year’s taxi licence applications, it currently takes between nine and 12 months for new applications for a private hire licence to be processed in Sandwell. At Wolverhampton city council, it takes approximately three weeks. A one-year taxi plate can cost £353 for a vehicle under five years old, and £399 if it is older if the vehicle is reg- istered with Sandwell council. Other councils, such as Dudley and Birming- ham, charge £235 and £185 for any aged vehicle, respectively. SPHDA chairman Mohammed Niwaz said the protest had been necessary due to what he described as a lack of communication and consideration from the leader of the council, Kerrie
20
Tuesday June 7 when they are to have a full council meeting. “We want them to sit with us and see what they are offering so that we can move forward, but it doesn’t feel like anything is set to happen yet, so we will continue to protest until something does actually happen.”
Carmichael. He said: “We were supposed to have a meeting in March about this, but she claimed to know nothing about it and said it would be rearranged for anoth- er month, but then she said the local elections meant she would need to do it another time. “Finally, she comes back to us with a date of June 15 to meet about this so, at that point, we wrote back to her saying that she is not being serious enough about talking to drivers after we had waited for so long. “That’s why we decided to protest outside the council house on Tuesday. We want them to understand that we want justice, we want our fees reduced and we want more help with MoTs and assistance with reducing our costs.” Mr Niwaz said that there had been no response from any member of the council during the protest and said that if they heard nothing in the coming week, they were prepared to carry out more protests. He said: “If the council leader or any member of the council doesn’t come back to us with a new date, we are prepared to demonstrate again with either a go-slow or a protest on
Similar protests were held last year in August, over the Christmas holidays, and most recently on Wednesday 4 May, where up to 200 taxi and private hire drivers gathered at the council house to raise their concerns about application processes and doubts about the fairness of the process in which taxi contracts are granted by the council. In January, the council’s own docu- ments into taxi contracts had failed to record a contract worth £20.1 million. Other cabbies have complained about incomplete information submitted by transport companies, raising questions if the contracts were fair. In response to the protest on 4 May a council spokesperson said: “We are making a number of improvements to our taxi licensing service in response to issues raised by the taxi trade, including the introduction of new licensing software to enable online applications and payments. “We regularly meet with representa- tives of private hire drivers and are committed to making further changes to improve the licensing process and ensure consistent standards for taxi and private hire passengers.
JUNE 2022
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90
