UNITE VIEWPOINT
HORSHAM DC AND REIGATE & BANSTEAD BC RESPONSES / UNITE’S REACTION
HORSHAM DISTRICT COUNCIL RESPONSE TO ARTICLE
“Horsham District Council’s (HDC) Licensing team are responsible for ensuring that their licensees (drivers, vehicles and operators) meet the required conditions and standards to hold taxi-related licences within the Horsham District locality only.
“The article written by Mr Michael Sweeney has various factual inaccuracies including date periods of complaints and lack of res- ponse and action by the stated authorities.
“The private hire vehicle to which Mr Sweeney is referring in his article has been licensed by Reigate and Banstead Borough Council (RBBC) as it operates from their area and therefore operates under their jurisdiction. HDC cannot therefore exercise any licensing enforcement related to this vehicle and its activities.
“We believe that appropriate investigation, enforcement and sanctions regarding this vehicle have been taken by RBBC as the home authority for this vehicle and licence holder.
“HDC takes all complaints and enforcement matters very seriously and works in positive partnerships with a number of bodies when considering complaints to enable the most appropriate action, credibility of complainants and any relevant history.”
REIGATE & BANSTEAD BC RESPONSE TO ARTICLE
“As soon as we were made aware of the situation, RBBC officers liaised with Horsham District Council’s (HDC) Licensing team to establish the full facts, took action in accordance with the council’s enforcement policy, and ensured that the sign was removed.”
PHTM JULY 2024
UNITE THE UNION’S RESPONSE TO EMAIL RECEIVED FROM RBBC LICENSING DEPT.
Thank you for your reply of the 25 June 2024.
Your email states that your R&B licensed PH driver has been told to remove his ‘taxi’ roof sign and that his serious offence of impersonating a hackney carriage without the relevant insurance and licences has been, ‘...put on his file...’
We would like to make the point at this juncture that the driver/proprietor in question here is guilty of a myriad of offences including; driving a hackney carriage without a licence, operating an unlicensed hackney carriage vehicle, driving with insufficient insurance, plying for hire etc, etc... Most if not all, of these offences have presented a grave risk to public safety!
Therefore, we would ask you to clearly articulate what disciplinary action (if any) has been taken against the driver/proprietor concerned? We ask this in the public interest in wishing to be satis- fied that such serious breaches of legislation, which have clearly posed a danger to public safety, have not gone unpunished!?
These illegal activities were reported to R&B licensing by us on the 19th June 2024. When (what date) did your department first take action, commensurate to the level of danger that he posed to the public and what was that action?
This matter has also been reported to Sussex Police for the offence of driving with insufficient insurance.
We await your response. Kind Regards, Mick Sweeney
Watch this space for further updates.... 33
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