ROUND THE COUNCILS
BLAENAU GWENT: LICENCE FEE INCREASE SCRAPPED
Contentious plans to increase the cost of taxi licensing fees by ten per cent in Blaenau Gwent have been scrapped. A public consulta- tion proposed rais- ing fees for new vehicles by £29.65, from April 1. The South Wales Argus reports that the price increase was proposed after a “reduced fee” was agreed for this year, which contributed to a predicted over- spend of £12,794 in the department. Councillors previ- ously raised con- cerns over the impact of the pro- posed price rise on
taxi drivers. A decision to scrap the proposed hike was made under delegated authority after a general licensing committee meeting on March 17 was cancelled. The council said the decision not to increase fees was “taken independent- ly of the measures announced as part of the coronavirus outbreak.” The proposed fee increase included £10 to claw back money lost from offering a reduced fee this year. But concerns were raised that the move would put pressure
on the taxi trade. Cllr Tommy Smith said many people in the borough rely on taxis due to a “lack of public transport.” Last year, taxi drivers in the bor- ough were given permission to in- crease their fares, with the maximum cost for a two mile journey
increasing
from £4.10 to £5.20. The fare increase was brought in to help the trade, but the Blaenau Gwent Hackney and PH Taxi Association said the rise only allowed drivers to “play catch up on the seven years since the previous increase.”
HULL: TRAINING COURSE SCRAPPED
The future of a train- ing course for would-be PHV and hackney carriage drivers in Hull is in doubt. According to the Hull Daily Mail, for the last seven years anyone applying for a new licence from Hull City Council has been required to complete a BTEC level 2 qualification. It involves 150 hours of home revision based on a 175-page training document followed by a three- day intensive course. Issues covered in- clude literacy and numeracy as well as knowledge of the city’s roads and neighbourhoods. Hull was one of the first
licensing auth-
orities in the country to introduce it and was praised at the time for attempting to drive up stan- dards in the industry. However, the award- ing body used by the council has announced it is withdrawing the qualification at the
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end of April. Now councillors on the city’s licensing committee are be- ing asked whether they want to contin- ue with a similar qualification by an- other awarding body. Licensing manager Keith Fenner said there were several awarding bodies of- fering similar Level 2 qualifications.
He added: “En- quiries are ongoing regarding the provi- sion of the quali- fication and whether they have approved learning centres across the country. “However, to date it has not been fully established how many there are in our local area.” In a report to the next committee, Mr Fenner suggests one option would be to suspend the requirement for the qualification until a clearer picture em- erges. Another opt- ion would be to scrap the require- ment altogether.
At the same meet- ing, councillors will also be asked to approve a range of changes to current conditions covering existing PHV and hackney carriage drivers and opera- tors in Hull as well as new applicants. They include propos- als to increase the age limit on electric vehicles being used as PHVs or HCs from ten to 14 years to promote the use of more environmental- ly-friendly vehicles. Another new rule says taxi operators, drivers or anyone connected with a business must not refuse a booking or discriminate against a customer on the grounds of their gender, age, marital status, religion, dis- ability, sexual orien- tation, race or ethnic origin. This is to: “Ensure the public is protected from any kind of discrimina- tion and operators are suitably pre- pared to process complaints.”
MAY 2020
ARGYLL AND BUTE: COUNCIL SET TO REVIEW FARES
Taxi fares across Argyll and Bute, are set to go under the microscope if coun- cillors agree to plans for a review. The Helensburgh Advertiser reports that legislation re- quires the council to fix the scales for taxi fares every 18 months.
The current fares were last reviewed in October 2018, and took effect in April 2019, meaning that a review has to be launched in April. The current fare scales were original- ly fixed in June 2014; three succes- sive reviews then have
since agreed
there should be no increase. The council’s tem- porary ‘business continuity commit- tee’, set up to conduct essential business during the pandemic, was to decide whether to approve the review at a Skype meeting on April 16.
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