Andy Peters Brighton & Hove Cab Trade Association
info@bhcta.co.uk www.bhcta.co.uk
Broken
It seems that some people need to be sat down, directly looked act, and told: “It wasn’t always broken”.
The issue is that our trade is being systemically labelled on a daily basis as ‘broken’ whilst dismissing the clear fact that at one point is was extremely well controlled since the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 and the Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998 Act were put into place, and it was all under local licensing control. That is of course until you-know-who arrived with world domination and shareholders to appease in 2012 in London, and has since spread across the UK.
What has actually happened since is a tangled web of twists and turns caused by barristers making a fortune, men in suits and ignorant politicians, who think they know what’s best for us. That is how we have ended up today, resulting with the claim that our trade is now broken. That is not down to the trade itself, it’s all those others who have broken it.
We have had the Transport Secretary in March 2025 stating that existing legislation allows both taxis and private hire vehicles (PHVs) to accept pre-booked fares beyond their licensing authority’s borders. However, he goes on to also state that this flexibility benefits passengers by increasing service availability. Yet stops short of explaining exactly what those benefits are? Someone please ask him!
Someone please ask him if it is beneficial for customers in an area where they are accustomed to, and expect a PHV with proper signage and compulsory CCTV would be picking them up, yet they instead get an unmarked car with no council controlled CCTV for their protection?
We even have James Button now recommending that all local authorities should agree to one specific local authority (but stops short of naming which one, but no prize for guessing who) becoming the national
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private hire licensing authority that deals with all driver and vehicle private hire licensing. This would be known as the ‘Principal Authority’ and the other local authorities would become ‘Outlier Authorities’. No need to check the date as April was last month.
He did note that this would require local authorities to “…abandon self-interest and relinquish local control as well as significant co-operation between every local authority…” claiming “…. this is not impossible.”
Mr Button, a question for you: why not take it further and have one licensing authority as the ‘Principle’ taking full charge of every aspect of licensing which includes sex shops and poodle parlours as well as all restaurants, pubs, off-licences, ice-cream vans, street traders, and so on. This would then leave local authorities as the ‘Outlier Authorities’ just walking around and making visits. Effectively, if you think it is good enough for the taxi/PH trade then your idea must be good enough for all licensing!
Unfortunately, in my opinion this is a typical example of where men in suits who sit at desks meddle and completely dismiss where Parliament specifically granted local councils the right to control local licensing under the two Acts.
What the likes of men in suits forget is that not every local authority has a dedicated hackney carriage/PHV Licensing Enforcement team that does regular patrols in the streets during days and night times. In Brighton & Hove we are very lucky to have such a licensing department with a specific team dealing with our trade. But, take the likes of Lewes DC/Eastbourne BC (with combined licensing) next door and there is no such dedicated cab trade licensing team as all licensing comes under one department such as those sex shops and poodle parlours. I have no doubt this situation is very typical throughout the majority of UK licensing departments.
Andy Burnham – The Great Hope?
So, we now have Andy Burnham in the news yet again highlighting the major issue of out-of-town cars predominantly working under his nose. First of all its good to get this on the national news media again, but what is has he actually stated that he is going to do about it? Answers on a post card to….
MAY 2025 PHTM
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