FIRE EXTINGUISHERS
Our Blue Book of conditions of licensing contains the requirement for HCVs and PHVs to carry fire extinguishers. However, a few months ago I raised the question of their necessity as advice from the ‘Fire and Rescue’ department has always been to never tackle a vehicle fire. I suggested to licensing and the council that if it insisted that fire extinguishers should remain a condition of licence, then the council has the duty to train every one of us to safely use them.
The follow-up was that the condition of licence for this would be removed for PHVs but not for HCVs because it’s in a bye-law somewhere. However, we have put it to licensing that there is a provision to be able to change a bye-law, and although it may take time, we will be pushing for this. So, watch this space.
WAV AGE LIMITS
For a while now we have raised major concerns about the availability of replacement WAVs and for those that are available, the significant costs. Thankfully the council and licensing have listened and have extended the age limit for WAVs by a further two years - which takes it to 14 years in total; adding on the ‘Exceptional Condition’ after ten years for two years, with two compliance tests per year, but then having three compliances per year. However, I suspect that most in the trade probably think that there should not be any age limits at all and the condition of the vehicle should be the priority.
UNMET DEMAND SURVEY
The three-yearly UDS was carried out this year under Ian Millership of LVSA and it was good to be able to assist with this again. The report for the October Licensing Committee meeting was 71 pages long and as usual contained comprehensive facts and figures.
Ian also gave a verbal report at the Licensing Meeting which was live-streamed (
tinyurl.com/lcm102022).
We were very pleased that Ian spoke about the issue of OOTs in the city and also about the major problem we have with private cars and OOTs parking on ranks and even told the council that it must be robust with tackling this problem.
PHTM NOVEMBER 2022
He also stated that the council must promote the Brighton & Hove taxi brand. Thanks for this Ian! I intend to grab this and get a full response from the council on what action will now be taken on these two subjects.
The outcome of the UDS was that there was (again) no significant unmet demand. As always, the council has the options to totally delimit, stop issuing plates, or to keep to the current policy of ‘managed growth’ which has been the way for many years now, of which the latter was the result.
So, there will be the continued issuing of five plates per year with the condition that these will be restricted to either being a WAV, EV, or plug-in electric hybrid. We have two types of status for licensed HCVs which we refer to as ‘restricted’, as described, and ‘unrestricted’, which allows any type of approved vehicle to be used.
One point to note: this year, some of those at the top of the waiting list have not taken up the option of a newly issued plate, such is the state, and uncertainty of the future of the trade.
DRAMATIC SCENES
There was a terrible ‘incident’ outside of the Streamline Taxis 202020 office where a car had driven into the garage doors having collided with a huge lorry and knocked a cyclist down. However, all is well because we had a film crew in Brighton filming the latest series of ‘Grace’ and the crew had replaced the historic garage doors with fake ones, so you can watch out for that.
All very exciting and the fee paid to Streamline has been donated to ‘The Martlets Hospice’ so all’s well that ends well.
Finally, on a lighter note, don’t you think it is ridiculous that even before Bonfire Night we have fireworks going off several weeks before November 5th, which means that the cat keeps running under the Christmas tree!
Andy Peters Brighton & Hove Cab Trade Association
info@bhcta.co.uk www.bhcta.co.uk
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