ROUND THE COUNCILS BOLTON:
‘STATUS QUO’ RULING ON MLS DEBATE
The status quo will now prevail in Bolton after plans to abandon controversial changes to the taxi trade were rubber stamped at town hall. Bolton Council’s leadership announced in July that they were withdrawing their support for MLS 2. The scheme had provoked a wave of protests from drivers who repeatedly raised fears, at public protests and council meetings, that demands that vehicles be no more than five years old on first registration and have been on the road for less than ten years to avoid a charge could have driven them off the road. They also raised fears that a common livery policy could have made them a target for vandals. In June, Bolton Council removed the age policy, agreed that there would be no Greater Manchester-wide common livery and pushed back the new emissions policy from 2028 to 2030. The following month the Labour leadership went a step further and announced they would be scrapping the second part of the scheme entirely. Then in August, a council cabinet meeting officially approved withdrawing support from phase two of the scheme.
WIGAN: MINIMUM AGE REQUIREMENTS AGREED
On 11 August, the Regulation Committee approved the implementation of a minimum age requirement for taxis in the area. The committee agreed that saloon vehicles could be no older than ten years and WAVs 15 years. This new policy would come into force on April 1, 2026 - after which vehicles older than the requirement would not be granted a new taxi licence. A number of GM authorities have implemented this change already so Wigan can no longer delay in agreeing the GM-wide policy despite fears this could see their fleet numbers drop. To offset this issue there is a ‘cooling-off’ period between August 16 and April 1, 2026, where cabbies will be allowed time to prepare for the changes due to current high car prices. Concerns were raised that cab drivers could obtain licences from Wolverhampton and work in Wigan to avoid new emissions rules. Joanne Brockley, licensing manager at Wigan Council, explained that Wolver- hampton Council’s standards for emissions were lower, which is why cabs are registering there.
PHTM SEPTEMBER 2023
Cllr Vickers said: “A lot of the issues are coming from Wolverhampton (licensed taxis).” The plan to stop this is to promote local taxis, the committee heard. This would involve urging residents to use Wigan taxis which are up to GM standards. Although the committee agreed to these new terms, there could still be reviews of the policy in the coming years. This would depend on possible changes in demands for taxis, the town hall heard.
ASHFIELD: 20-WEEK WAIT FOR LICENCE PLATE
The boss of a Hucknall private hire company says Ashfield drivers are waiting up to 20 weeks to get the necessary licence plates for their cars. Danny Mellors, who runs Ideal Cars, says Ashfield District Council’s testing station at Sutton is no longer fit for purpose if it is leaving drivers waiting up to five months for their plate. And he says the length of waiting time is now pushing drivers to other get licences from other councils and licensing authorities where the waits are much shorter. Danny gave Nottingham City, Gedling and Broxtowe councils as examples where drivers are waiting just seven days. And he says Ashfield drivers are being unfairly condemned to being constantly forced to rent cars – so having the extra costs of that – rather than being able to buy their own because of the long waits to get a plate from Ashfield council. He said: “We first notified the council last September that the waiting times for plating appointments was too long. At that time it was ‘only’ eight weeks but that was too long and now it’s 20 weeks – that’s five months. “We said then and we’re saying now that this simply isn’t good enough and isn’t fair to drivers who rent cars, but wish to buy their own. “We had a driver, who wanted to buy and plate ten WAVs and start his own company, working solely in partnership with Ideal Cars. He had £110,000 to buy the cars and then we would put our drivers in them. But the current situation means he would be investing £110,000 and then have to wait five months before he could even get them plated. “Ideal Cars has been loyal to Ashfield council since we started in 2015 and we have only ever held an Ashfield operator’s licence. But now we hold a Wolverhampton operator’s licence as well and we’re looking at a Nottingham City licence because the wait times are so much shorter.”
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