90 PRIVATEHIRE AND TAXI MONTHLY
MAY 2009 DEREGDILEMMA
MEDWAYCABBIES CALL ON TOWN HALL TO CAP LICENSING
Frustrated taxi dri vers have c alled on co uncil chiefs to temporarily stop givi ng o ut new licences to drivers hop- ing to work in the towns, saying the streets a re swamped with cabs. The plea has been made by
the Medway
Licensed T axi D rivers’ Association, after
it
emerged tha t Medwa y has nearly 500 c abbies but just 80 parking bays. Drivers are being forced to queue for customers on a daily basis - sitting bumper to bumper out- side the tow ns’ train stations and s hopping hotspots. MLTDA chair Mike Smith told Your Medway: “The current council policy is that there is no res tric- tion on t he number of licensed ta xi dri vers in the town. We only have 80 spaces to park in our area. “The problem is made
worse by the new road developments, which we can’t do much about, and the credit crunch. “We’re calling for the council to res trict any request for taxi licences until such t ime a s the economic situation sorts itself out or the council finds o ut ho w man y cabs the towns need.” The number o f t axi licences issued by Med- way Council was capped at 400 until 2000, when Medway Council bosses removed the maximum quota. Since that date 94 extra licences have be en awarded, 5 0 of wh ich were granted soon after the cap was lifted. Medway Co
uncil’s
regeneration, commu- nity and culture director Robin C ooper said: “There are 494 licensed hackney carriage d riv- ers working in Medway. This does not me an
there are 494 drivers working i n Medway at the same time. “The ability t o control the issue of licences is tied to identifying whether or not there is any u nmet d emand. Any r equest t o r estrict numbers would be sub- ject t o an e xtensive consultation and survey of any unmet demand. “The number of drivers entering the trade i s also controlled by t he council’s Knowledge test, which is held twice a year. Applicants have also been required t o pass a Driving S tan- dards Agency driving assessment si
nce
2007, whic h h as reduced the number of applicants. “The council is in talks with the MLTDA about a number o f
STOCKPORT DRIVERS WIN REPRIEVE AS LICENCE LIMITS QUESTIONED
Licensing councillors in Stockport have s talled on their decision to de- regulate black taxi cabs in Stockport. To the obvious delight of ca b dr ivers at a packed fu ll co uncil meeting last month Cllr Chris Gordon, the chair- man of licensing, said the r estrictions w ould now remain pending a decision at a future meeting of his commit- tee as to the wisdom of removing licence l imits just as the economic downturn takes hold. The licences were limit- ed by the council to 120. C llr Go rdon told the Stockport Express: “In the light of the eco- nomic recession,
I issues,
including the number of drivers and taxi ran k spaces.”
TAXI SHOP TAXI SIGNS & ACCESSORIES
A1 SLOPE A2 SLOPE A3 SLOPE A3 SLOPE 11 x 6 x 5 High A4 SLOPE 18 x 6 x 5 High 24 x 6 x 7 High A5 MINI A6 STANDARD
36 x 6 x 7 High 10 x 4 x 4 High 19 x 6 x 5 High A7 LARGE
SCREEN SIGNS TOBLERONE
intend to invite th e licensing, environment and safety committee at a future meeting to reconsider wh ether now is an appropriate time to b e delimiting the number of hackney carriage licences.” Steve Hulme, the chair- man o f
Stockport
Owner Drivers Associa- tion ( SODA) s aid th at while his colleagues were pleased with the plan t o r econsider the de-regulation the group
Taxi drivers gather outside the town hall to voice their concern on the night of the licensing meeting
would still be taking the issue to judicial review. Mr Hulme ex plained: “On behalf of the taxi drivers and their families I commend t he c ouncil and in particular C llr Gordon for his statement to defer implementation of de -regulating ta xi licences in t he l ight of the current economic cli- mate. “I don’t think councillors were quite prepared for the outcry that it has caused not only through- out Stockport, but in many other boroughs.” However Mr Hulme warned the author ity that his me mbers would still be seeking a judicial review of the decision taken on Feb- ruary 11 to de-regulate. He added: “ I would
hope now that we can get together and come up with an a micable solution
tha t
wil l
enrich th e l ives of t he people of S tockport rather t han enriching the lives o f t he l egal profession.” Cllr Pe ter S cott the leader o f St ockport’s Labour g roup s aid: “The announce ment by Cllr Gordon is a bit of an about face. It was importa nt tha t there is some s ort of limit on licences because some o f the taxi drivers ha ve invested a s muc h as £50,000 an d de-regu- lation would have lost them their money. “Our v iew i s that the issue of licences should be phased in gradually.”
MANCHESTERTO REVIEW BLACK CAB NUMBERS
More b lack c abs may soon b e on Manches- ter’s streets after t he city council decided to review the number of licences it issues. The city council is due to issue 3 0 new h ack- ney plates this year, the same a s i n 2 008, bu t opposition
Liberal
Democrats are calling for 200 new ones to be added with
in 24
24 x 6 x 6 High 30 x 6 x 7 High
71/2 x 21/2 Green or Yellow
25 x 8 x 7 High
N & J Pitt Taximeter Services Ltd 0115 978 5861
months. The Lib Dems feel the city is underserved at night and say e xtra taxis woul d he lp cut anti-s ocial b ehaviour by ferrying people away from the city cen- tre at weekends. Labour’s Richard Cow- ell, e xecutive m ember for e nvironment, has asked o fficers t o review the c ouncil’s hackney plate alloca- tion policy and r eport back t o the council ’s licensing and appeal s
committee. Lib D em John Com- mons,
spokesperson
opposition on
licensing, told Crain’s Manchester B usiness that more licences were needed in order to meet
“an unmet
demand that is glaring- ly obvious t hroughout the city particularly at night ti me.” C ommons added: “We w elcome this opportunity to have a review of the co un- cil’s current policy.” There are currently 1,031 hackney licences and 749 would-be driv- ers o n t he waiting list. Manchester has the third highest number of hackney l icences per head in t he U K, w ith one per 394 residents. This is more than Bris- tol,
Sheffield,
Nottingham, Birming- ham and Leeds but behind Li verpool an d Newcastle, where there
are around 300 p eople per cab. Manchester’s Taxi Owners and Driv- ers Association said i t was op posed to any increase on the cur- rent level o f 3 0 n ew licences per year. Secretary
George
Simms told Crain’s: “If anything the re is a n over-supply a t th e moment. Trade is down because of the current climate. Ta xis re flect what is going on in the rest of the world.” Rachel Christie, the council’s head of envi- ronmental s ervices, said: “We are currently planning to review how we allocate hackney carriage l icences in Manchester. “No decisions have yet been m ade a bout the scope of this review, which we are carrying out to make sure our policies continue to r eflect the needs of the city.”
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 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140
