..COUNCILS


NORTH EAST LINCOLNSHIRE: DRIVERS WARNED ABOUT LICENCES


“Own up or face a ban.” That is the warn- ing to taxi drivers who try to hide driving con- victions from licensing officers.


All 450 private hire drivers and 235 hack- ney carriage drivers will receive a strongly worded letter from licensing officers of North East Lin- colnshire Council. It follows complaints from members of the council’s Community Protection Committee of failures by drivers to notify officers of driv- ing convictions.


Licensing officer Adri- an Moody said drivers could face having


their licence suspend- ed and losing their livelihood.


The officer said it was a condition of all licences granted that drivers must notify offi- cers of all convictions they receive. They can include points on driv- ing licences for using a mobile phone while driving, speeding or driving defective vehi- cles.


Cllr John Fenty told the Grimsby Evening Telegraph: “We should give them the opportu- nity to come clean. “They should do so within seven days of a conviction and notify officers or risk losing


their licence.”


Councillors agreed to await guidance from the Department for Transport before decid- ing a new policy on the renewal of licences for drivers whose vehicles are more than ten years old.


Any older vehicle should be replaced with one less than five years old according to present regulations. And councillors are considering making it a condition that new licences are only granted to drivers who operate wheelchair friendly taxis.


A decision is expected in February.


WYRE FOREST: FEES CRITICISM REJECTED BY COUNCIL CHIEF


A former Kiddermin- ster taxi driver’s claim that Wyre Forest Dis- trict Council could be breaking the law by allegedly making a profit from taxi licence fees has been rejected by a council chief. John Turley, 41, said that fees were rising steadily year by year and had become unfair and unreasonable. Conservative Marcus Hart, cabinet member for housing and envi- ronmental services, said, however, that the taxi licence fee only increased in line with inflation each year. Mr Turley said that when he started driving a taxi in 1994, it cost £26 for a 12-month hackney car- riage driver’s licence, whereas now it was £261 for two years. He added that a hack- ney carriage vehicle licence was £100 a year in 1994 and was now £368 for the same period. Mr Turley said that, according to the law, “a district council may demand and recover for the grant to any per-


son of a licence to drive a hackney carriage, such a fee as they con- sider reasonable with a view to recovering the costs of issue and administration”.


He added: “The ques- tion is, what is reasonable? I person- ally think these fees are not reasonable and may be even illegal. “After all, the fees are not meant to cover the cost of running a department - they are for issuing licences. “The CRB check is only £36 at other councils, including Birmingham and London, so where is the other £19 going? Not a reasonable fee, surely?” Mr Turley,


who


stopped driving a taxi at the end of July, said he had become fed up with parking illegally because there were too many taxis and not enough space on the ranks.


He added: “All taxi driv- ers are suffering. The main problem is the issuing of unlimited licences, combined with a limited amount of taxi


NOVEMBER 2010 PHTM


space to ply for hire.” Mr Hart said: “The taxi licence fee is set by the council but only increases in line with inflation each year on average by about three per cent.


“The aim is for the service to be cost neu- tral rather than for the council to make a prof- it from it - the fee is designed to cover the costs of administering the application.” He added: “There is no limit on the number of taxi licences that the council can issue. This follows the council’s response to an Office of Fair Trading report a few years ago which sought to question those authorities that were still in regulation. “Wyre Forest could not justify that and embarked on a dereg- ulation plan.


“What the council has done, though, as part of its deregulation plan is to ensure that it has a fleet of hackney carriages that are of very good quality and comfort and are accessible to all.”


WALSALL: TAXI DRIVER FINED OVER WHEELCHAIR


A Walsall pensioner told magistrates she has suffered flash- backs since her wheelchair fell over in a taxi after the driver failed to strap her into his cab - causing her to bump her head dur- ing the incident. According to the Express and Star, Parkinson’s sufferer Hilda Tonks bumped the back of her head


when cab driver Akhlaq Ahmed, 42, swerved to avoid a parked lorry.


He had been working for Leamore A1 Taxis when he pushed the wheelchair into the taxi, leaving Mrs Tonks with her back to the passenger door with- out attaching the safety harness.


Ahmed was fined £275 for using a motor vehi-


OLDHAM: ACCUSATION THAT DRIVERS ENTICED TO BREAK LAW


Licensing and police officers have been accused of entrap- ment for coercing private hire drivers into breaking the law. A joint Oldham Council and police operation to clamp down on private hire drivers who tout for business on the street resulted in 16 drivers being caught picking up fares that had not been booked in advance.


They are being investi- gated for the offence of plying for hire and, as their insurance doesn’t cover them for flagged down fares, an offence of having no insurance is also being considered.


But the drivers have hit back saying they were pressurised by under- cover police officers. They say they were parked and awaiting jobs on the radio from their office base when the officers got into their cars and demand- ed to be taken to a destination, saying it was important and they were in a hurry. Despite the drivers insisting every job has to be booked through the office, they said they persisted in put- ting pressure on them. Richard Cook, of Delta Cars, which has three drivers involved, said:


The driver in that situa- tion had two choices, to continue to say no to someone who would not take no for an answer and who continues to harass them, or inform the office that he was going mobile and to where and with whom. In this day and age when we hear about so many muggings and people getting into cars, frightening drivers, stealing their belongings and some- times doing them harm, people are warned to be careful and vigilant. What would be going through the driver’s mind? What are they after, are they armed? What would the aver- age member of the public do in similar cir- cumstances?”


Once at the destina- tion the drivers were told the passengers were police officers and were then approached by licens- ing officers saying they were being investigat- ed for committing an offence.


Mr Cook said: “The way this operation was carried out was noth- ing short of entrap- ment. They were incit- ing the drivers to commit an offence by putting them under


pressure by their actions. They are put- ting the drivers’ jobs, their standard of living and that of their fami- lies at stake and causing potential problems for them. He questioned whe- ther it is an offence to cause another person by their own actions to commit a crime - and even if it constituted “flagging” - if the driver told his office of the sit- uation.


Mr Cook concedes that plying for hire is an offence but ques- tioned if the operation was the right way to tackle it.


Delta received the top four stars in the coun- cil’s Cab Safe scheme; Oldham Council had said it was worried that so many drivers were caught in one night and that more enforce- ment operations will follow in the run-up to Christmas. Police had said the operation sends out a strong message that rogue drivers won’t be tolerated.


Both the police and council said they couldn’t comment fur- ther with an inves- tigation ongoing. The drivers are expect- ed to receive a summons to appear in court.


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cle when the manner in which the passen- gers were carried was such that it caused injury or danger to those passengers. He was ordered to pay £900 costs, a £15 victim surcharge and his licence was endorsed with three penalty points. Ahmed initially denied the charge, but changed his plea to guilty.


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