Andy Peters Brighton & Hove Cab Trade Association info@bhcta.co.uk www.bhcta.co.uk


Pleased to say Uber didn’t get away with it


You need to refer to the February edition of PHTM for details, but despite Uber seemingly trying to end its obligation as a licensed operator here to provide WAVs, my proposal ensured it still must.


Briefly, Uber whined about having to have 20% WAVs which applied as a condition of licence to all operators with a 100+ fleet. And long story short, that condition of licence was then agreed to be removed for all operators. However, my replacement proposal now ensures that all operators must provide a WAV facility to be considered ‘fit and proper’ to hold an operator licence, meaning that Uber must continue to do so. I will be keep a close eye on its app to ensure it does.


Our recent Trade Forum meeting was another interesting one


Unexpectedly we had the leader of the council, Cllr Trevor Muten, (Labour) attend so I was later able to be my usual annoyingly vocal self for two of my items on the agenda; devolution and potholes. We also had Cllr Kerry Pickett (Green) attending as well, who is on the Licensing Committee. Just to point out that I have no political inclination and I will speak to any councillor from any party for any taxi/PH matters.


But before that, we had a visit from LVEC with a nice brand new shiny black TXE parked outside of the Town Hall, although I bet it didn’t get here exclusively on electric. The rep introduced himself and made a presentation on how splendid this vehicle was with its economic running cost advantages, and so on, and so on.


Of course, we the reps sat there politely listening to all of this information waiting for the price to be stated, and waited and listened more. But me being me, having Googled some facts before I opened my mouth put my hand up to ask a question. Or rather to make a point.


I stated: “Is it correct that LVEC is £100 million in debt?” which was acknowledged. I continued: “Perhaps this is the reason why you are now trying to sell the vehicle outside of London along with the falling numbers of sales there”.


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We finally got around to being told the price which we really already knew was £70k+ (not including interest) and we all looked at each other in amusement, stating the point that a lot of the drivers live hand-to-mouth most of the time, as well as the fact that we are not on the London tariff. It was certainly made clear to everyone attending including both councillors, that expecting us to commit our blood and sweat to purchasing a nice shiny new TXE was totally out of the question.


Plus, the fact that for all its virtues the TXE is not really electric is it with its 1.5 litre petrol engine and very short range. I could see from the reps body language that he had pretty much given up by then and the discussion on the TXE kind of drifted off and we went onto other items. I did suggest to the rep that he was not obliged to stay but he decided to remain. I will say that Trevor looked marvellous posing outside the town hall alongside the shiny new TXE that he posted on his Facebook page which will no doubt be used in the LVEC nationwide promotion campaign.


I then turned to devolution being extremely pleased that Trevor was still there, but actually realising that he was probably only really there for the TXE presentation. So, I really pushed him on devolution stating that the council had recently and enthusiastically voted for it, and apart from being totally undemocratic by not having a local consultation, where does this leave the local taxi trade?


I emphasised that for all intents and purposes the council was eagerly looking to expand to take over other surrounding areas. I reminded everyone there that I had previous correspondence with Trevor on this and had not received any information about where the trade stood, only rhetoric of ‘opportunities’. I really pressed the point that currently the trade is in limbo, and it was grossly unfair for there to be no consideration or information as to what will happen to us.


Trevor did state that it is early days as yet but casually dropped the bomb that they were looking at expanding the boundaries. This was picked up by Cllr Kerry Pickett, almost accusing Trevor of being disingenuous with facts and of course I jumped on that and pushed for more details. This turned out to be opening the boundaries to each side of us which would incorporate Adur to the west and Lewes to the right.


Kerry gave the clear impression that they were not in favour of devolution with no consultation taking place, so that was an interesting situation.


I made the point in the room to my fellow reps that if they thought it was difficult to get on the ranks at the


MARCH 2025 PHTM


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