SOMEWHERE UNDER THE RADAR... UNITE VIEWPOINT
Ah there you are... As always, I hope I find you well, all things considered. As you know a lot of my articles are based upon recent events, nationally, locally, sometimes even internationally and this one is no exception.
I’ve spoken previously about various dangers that face the trade at large. This month we examine yet another peril hiding in plain sight, that of what I call the “Trojan Horse” of discretion. Now you may wonder how references to a story from the Trojan War, about the subterfuge used by the Greeks to enter the city of Troy in order to secure their dominance, can have any relevance to the cab trade?
Well metaphorically, a “Trojan Horse” has come to mean any trick or tactic that gives the ability or causes something to be able to be smuggled in under the radar in plain sight without the knowledge of the masses. It’s also of course more recently used to refer to a malicious computer programme that tricks users into willingly running it, thinking it is something else. This is known as a “Trojan Horse” or simply just a “Trojan”.
In many licensing areas there is the dreaded Taxi Licensing Handbook. I say dreaded because mostly these documents have at best been drafted by people who lack the necessary technical knowledge, expertise or experience and at worst, they represent a patchwork quilt of provisions that have merely been copied and pasted from other areas. Time and again this is done without any consideration for proper policy justification or even relevance to the local area or trade.
Either way these documents rarely do what “it says on the tin”!
It is difficult to say whether this comes about as a result of acts of direct sabotage, unwitting manipulation through lack of knowledge or whether it is evidence of something far more sinister...!
One thing is for sure; these handbooks tend to run hand in hand with another huge danger to the trade, that of ‘delegated powers’. This is where powers that were (and many – including me - say should be) in the hands of the ‘Licensing Committee’, and are delegated to officers.
Now if it wasn’t bad enough that the people who should represent the ‘checks and balances’ and hold the wand of independence are shirking their responsibilities, many of these ‘Licensing Councillors’ are also guilty of a gross dereliction of duty by merely nodding through changes
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without scrutinising their potential effect(s) and checking the authenticity of statements made by officers. Apart from the, in many cases dire, consequences further down the line, this represents at best an abuse of power in that it allows officers to slide things in under the radar through these delegated powers when they perceive that no one is watching.
One such tactic is to add or modify something and then see if anyone notices. If someone does notice or there are adverse consequences to the addition or change, then this is regularly blamed upon confusion or some nonsensical pseudo reasoning. Yes, there is an element of ‘smoke and mirrors’ to this.
I’ll give you an example: at a local council in my area previously officers sought fit to ban the Toyota Prius from being licensed. I’ll just point out at this juncture that the Prius was at the time and still is, one of the most popular vehicles licensed for use as a taxi or private hire vehicle in the UK and a clean hybrid vehicle to boot. Their reasoning for the ban was that the back seat was “too small”.
When we, as a union, called them to account on behalf of our members, their rationale was frankly astounding. I put one simple question to them: “Why are you the only licensing authority in the south of England to refuse to license the Toyota Prius?” They said and I quote: “
...because people are getting fatter...”!!! You really couldn’t make this up! If it wasn’t so serious it would be hilarious.
This is an example of ‘delegated powers’ at work. The problem here is multi-faceted as not only was the arbitrary decision by officers to ban the Prius made without foundation or any policy justification, the then Chair and Vice Chair of Licensing saw fit to attempt to defend and justify the officers’ madness by blaming fat people! These people will scream black is white and white is black, together with maintaining that ‘the moon is green and made of cheese’, even in the face of tangible and overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
Again, an acute abuse of power!
To make matters worse, as I have previous pointed out, these Licensing Councillors regularly allow themselves to be hood- winked by officers through taking their eye off the ball. One of the roles of a Licensing Councillor, one would have thought, is to properly audit the authenticity and technical accuracy of statements, documents and decisions from officers, together with checking that officers’ alleged “specialist knowledge” is exactly that.
MARCH 2021
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