or, in any such case, such other sums as a district council may, subject to the following provisions of this section, from time to time determine.
If a district council determine that the maximum fees specified in subsection (2) of this section should be varied they shall publish in at least one local newspaper circulating in the district a notice setting out the variation proposed, drawing attention to the pro- visions of paragraph (b) of this subsection and specifying the period, which shall not be less than twenty-eight days from the date of the first publication of the notice, within which and the manner in which objections to the variation can be made.
(b) A copy of the notice referred to in paragraph (a) of this sub- section shall for the period of twenty-eight days from the date of the first publication thereof be deposited at the offices of the council which published the notice and shall at all reasonable hours be open to public inspection without payment.
(4) If no objection to a variation is duly made within the period specified in the notice referred to in subsection (3) of this sec- tion, or if all objections so made are withdrawn, the variation shall come into operation on the date of the expiration of the period specified in the notice or the date of withdrawal of the objection or, if more than one, of the last objection, whichever date is the later.
(5) If objection is duly made as aforesaid and is not withdrawn, the district council shall set a further date, not later than two months after the first specified date, on which the variation shall come into force with or without modification as decided by the district council after consideration of the objections.
So then... Section 53 is all about drivers’ badges. Councils do not have to advertise increases in the fees for drivers’ badges, but under section 70 they do have to advertise fee increases for vehicles and operators. And that basically is what Guildford failed to do.
And so they’ve had to hand a load of money back.
Now don’t get me wrong: they’ve not had to hand back every penny that they’ve taken from 2008 onwards, because the previous rise in fees, in 2003/4, was properly advertised. So the council could continue to law-
fully charge that amount of money – not the increase. So it’s the differ- ence between the two figures that they’ve had to hand back.
Of course, there is nothing to prevent the council from advertising a new increase tomorrow and bring in those new fees in 28 days’ time. But – and here is the enforcement disaster area – if our phone rang only once a day from members of the trade complaining that they had complained about illegal activity in their area but there is no enforcement, that would be extremely pleasant. But as it is, we usually have to replace the telephone by lunchtime because it has melted from the morning’s complaints.
What this District Auditor has done is to look at section 53 and section 70 and say, “A council can only recover or charge for such matters as they are expressly allowed to under the legislation.” And section 53 uses the words, “recovering the costs of issue and administration”. The word “enforcement”, the words “control and supervision” do not appear.
He then looked at the wording of section 70, which allows councils to charge for testing vehicles, reasonable cost of providing hackney carriage stands, and any reasonable administrative or other costs in con- nection with the foregoing, and with the control and supervision of hackney carriages and private hire vehicles.” The District Auditor pointed that the Act did not say “hackney carriages, private hire vehicles and operators. And so he found that the council cannot charge for enforcement on drivers and operators.
Now let’s look at this in a logical way... and I have to say that it’s quite sur- prising that this has never been uncovered or brought up in the 35 years since the Act came in. So now it would seem that enforcement officers no longer exist, unless the councils pay for them themselves.
When an authorised officer or police constable inspects a vehicle under section 68, then indeed “control and supervision of vehicles” is taking place – no problem, the till can ring. But if as a result of such activity licensing offi- cers become concerned that, having checked 47 vehicles, 30 of which had to be taken off the road because they were unfit, and all those 30 vehicles were being operated by one company, their ability to go and enforce is somewhat hampered because there is no cash in the till so to do.
Continued on page 10
Fleet cover from Swinton Taxi Division
We go the extra mile to get you cheaper insurance
Mick, Lyndy and Paul head up our dedicated fleet team, and they can get you a great price on your fleet cover… but they don’t stop there. They’ve got over 50 years experience of working with taxi fleets between them and they know what they’re talking about. Don’t arrange your fleet cover until you’ve spoken to them.
The Swinton Fleet Team can arrange: • Public liability cover
• A great quote by searching a panel of insurers
• Flexible payments • Tailored cover
Yasser Mansha, Albatross Cars, Derby “ Being with Swinton
Taxi Division has allowed us to cut our costs and invest this money back into our business. We’ve saved thousands!
For fleet queries only call today on or go online to
www.swintontaxi.co.uk For single vehicle queries call 0800 409 6498
MARCH 2011 PHTM 0800 531 6125
Swinton Taxi Division is a division of Swinton Group Limited, registered in England number 756681, which is connected for the purposes of the Insurance Companies Regulations 1994 to MMA Insurance plc and Gateway Insurance Company Limited. Registered office: Swinton House, 6 Great Marlborough Street, Manchester M1 5SW. Calls may be recorded. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
PAGE 9
“
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 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96
