OLDHAM:
Financial pressures felt by Oldham cab- bies have been eased after vehicle age limits were extended.
Oldham Council’s Licensing Committee acted in response to financial concerns fac- ing the trade raised by the borough’s taxi drivers and operators. Saloon vehicles can now be first licensed if they are less than five years old and hackney carriages aged seven or under.
The committee decided a one-year increase in the limit was sufficient and also implemented a two-year increase on re-licensing from the date of first registration. John Garforth, princi- pal licensing officer,
told the Oldham Eve- ing Chronicle: “It’s a push from the trade with more and more people driving lic- ensed vehicles.
“There were some concerns drivers could not replace their vehicles as frequently as they once could. “As a safeguard, the council can now implement three MoT- style tests a year on vehicles where previ- ously it was two. “With the age limit when a vehicle has to be re-licensed raised from eight to ten years for a private hire vehi- cle and 12 to 14 for a black cab, the commit- tee has upped the tests to three.
“If a vehicle does not KIRKLEES: UTURN ON PENALTY SCHEME FOR TAXIS
A controversial plan to penalise taxi drivers in Huddersfield looks set to be scrapped - before it even begins. According to the Hud- dersfield Daily Exam- iner, councillors are being recommended to make a complete U- turn over the penalty points scheme, three months before it is implemented.
And it means Kirklees Council has spent many thousands of pounds on a scheme they now propose to ditch. There have been many protests over the plans and a threat of strike action by cab- bies, concerned at another level of enforcement. Many, in fact, have joined the union GMB in the run-up to the planned introduction of the scheme in Janu- ary 2012.
But now councillors on Kirklees Licensing Panel are being urged to reject the scheme,
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which was approved last March.
Officers admit there are no funds in place to back up the scheme. which would have seen drivers penalised for such offences as overcharging, keeping unsafe vehicles, bad behaviour and eating while driving.
Licensing manager Catherine Waller has told councillors: “Con- cerns brought to our attention include the scheme being an unnecessary layer of enforcement.
“The scheme was also regarded as cumber- some and time consuming and likely to lead to inconsisten- cy and unfairness. “The cost of senior offi- cers’ time in adjud- icating on disputes was likely lo be unten- able and an unneces- sary and inappropriate use of senior officers’ time.
“The proposal is now the penally points
scheme be aban- doned in favour of a reward scheme. With- out extra funding for an IT system, it will not be possible to imple- ment it.”
The Licensing and Safety Committee backed the proposal earlier this year but taxi drivers immediate- ly threatened to strike if it was implemented. Any driver who racked up 12 points in a year would have been stripped of their licence by Kirklees. Some of the offences were taken from the general penalty points system used on all motorists - including driving with- out insurance and using a mobile phone at the wheel. However, many of the offences in the Kirk- lees system would have been unique to cabbies - including overcharging, failing to wear a driver’s badge and jumping the queue at a taxi rank.
ROUNDTHE... LEICESTER:
OLDER TAXIS TO HELP CUT COSTS
pass we can get it off the road.”
As of June, 2010, there were 1,091 pri- vate hire drivers licensed in Oldham under 40 operators. Eighty-five hackney carriages are also based in Oldham, with 203 drivers.
More than 80 hours of observations were undertaken in June at the main five ranks in Oldham used by hack- ney cabs to decide if there was a demand for more vehicles. A report concluded there is “no significant demand” for an increase and the com- mittee decided to retain the limit of 85 hackney carriages after review.
TAXIS FACING COUNCILRUN MOT TESTS
A testing station run by Leicester City Council could be set up to check whether taxis meet legal require- ments. Following the closure of the city centre bus depot in 2005, taxi testing in the city has been carried out by a privately run company. The taxi test is similar to a standard MoT test, but with additional checks. It is a require-
ment that all taxis have a test before licensing and then again every six months.
The council believes it could save money and make cash by offering tests to other councils and private hire firms. It is also proposing to extend the age limit of taxi cabs from eight to ten years and allow vehicles which fail spot checks to be repaired without los-
CARDIFF: DISABILITY TAXIS BOOST CRITICISED
A taxi drivers’ leader claims proposals to phase out saloon cars as a way to improve access for disabled people will put some Cardiff cabbies out of work. Mathab Ahmed Khan, chairman of Cardiff Hackney Car- riage Association, wants the council to abandon the idea, say- ing it will cost drivers £8m.
Cardiff is consulting on the move so dis- abled people can hire a taxi “with the mini- mum delay or incon- venience”.
According to BBC News, Cllr Ed Bridges said: “Nothing has been agreed or dis- missed.” Cardiff has around 400 saloon taxis among more than 950 in operation. Mr Khan is already work- ing on a petition for his drivers to give passen- gers to reject the idea. He said more than 500 Cardiff cabs suitable for disabled passen- gers was sufficient. Mr Khan said: “The dis- abled population of Cardiff is no more than five per cent of the total population. Therefore, there is no shortage of disabled access vehi- cles to accommodate their needs. If we were to replace these 400
vehicles, it would cost around £8m and we are in no position to stand that sort of money.” The prospect of saloon cars being phased out as cabs was raised by a report to councillors which noted concern about the standard of the ageing taxi fleet. It noted Liverpool, Bris- tol and Manchester insist that hackney car- riages must be black cabs, as in London, while Leicester and Southampton specify taxis must be accessi- ble for wheelchairs. The report noted that it is “important that dis- abled people have the same access to trans- port to ensure social inclusion, in particular that a disabled person should be able to hire a hackney carriage on the spot with the mini- mum delay or incon- venience, and having accessible hackney carriages makes this possible.” Wendy Ashton, chair of Disability Wales, said the difference in people’s impairments meant a combination of cars was needed. “There are all kinds of issues around taxis. I have spinal problems so I can’t use the Lon- don taxi-type cabs. I can get in but can’t
bend to get on the back seat, not without severe pain.
“I know people who prefer a saloon car.
If
they are not tall then it’s easier for them to get into from the road. “If people are wheel- chair users and they have ramps to get in, sometimes the ramps are quite steep.” Some vehicles designed to carry wheelchairs did not always cater for large electric wheel- chairs, she said. Council officers were to discuss the review with taxi trade repre- sentatives. Cllr Ed Bridges said no deci- sion was made to remove the saloon car category at the recent committee meeting. “Instead, the commit- tee suggested further investigation was needed into reviewing vehicle type approval, in particular having a restricted number of vehicle types in a mixed fleet – e.g. saloon, MPV, purpose built. “Arrangements are being made to ini- tiate trade consul- tation with regards to the [taxi] vehicle test- ing regime as this was considered priority by the committee.”
Cardiff also has about 800 licensed PHVs.
PHTM NOVEMBER 2011
ing their licence. Sital Singh Gill, chair of the Association of Leicester Hackney Carriage Drivers, wel- comed the news. He told the Leicester Mercury: “It’s much better to have another place in the city to test your taxi and to have time to make any repairs.”
The proposals were set to be considered on November 14.
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