Edinburgh City Council has rejected the OFT's call for de-restriction of taxi numbers, but has backed its recommendation for more competition with regard to fares.

Edinburgh licensing chiefs have rejected the Office of Fair Trading's (OFT) recent recommendation for UK licensing authorities to lift restrictions on the number of taxis licensed to ply for hire.  Critics had claimed that the 2,000 taxis and private hire vehicles currently licensed in the city would increase to as much as 6,000, creating more pressure on already limited taxi rank space and raising fears of a criminal element entering the trade.

Licensing chief Councillor Jack O'Donnell claimed that the availability problems at peak times could not justify increasing the number of taxis 'willy-nilly', which would be detrimental to safety and quality standards.

But Councillor O'Donnell said that he would have no objection to OFT moves to encourage taxis to charge fares below the council-set rates, saying that his primary concern was that customers weren't charged in excess of the controlled tariff.

Plates for PH?
Plans to require private hire vehicles in the city to display external identification plates have stalled following objections by a major taxi firm.  While the scheme was intended to aid identification of vehicles operating legitimately, Central Radio Taxis claimed that the move would encourage private hire cars to illegally ply for hire in the streets. 

Private hire cars, which must be pre-booked and cannot be hired on the streets or at taxi ranks, currently only display a small license disc in the windscreen to indicate that they are properly licensed.  The move was intended to make it easier for vulnerable customers to distinguish legitimate vehicles from bogus or pirate cabs.

Following the objection, Edinburgh City Council will carry out further research and consultations before a final decision is made.  Council chiefs have also confirmed that the proposal would not lead to private hire cars being allowed to use the city's bus lanes.

Motion
Meanwhile, a Scottish Parliament motion condemning the OFT's de-restriction recommendation has been signed by 24 MSPs, with all the major political parties represented.  The motion, sponsored by Scottish National Party transport spokesman Mr Kenny MacAskill, supports the representations made by the Scottish Taxi Federation to the OFT and claims that deregulation of numbers would be detrimental to both drivers and passengers.

In a written Parliamentary answer Scottish Executive minister Andy Kerr confirmed that ministers will respond to the OFT's report by 10 March 2004.

Comment
While Edinburgh City Council's decision to reject the OFT's de-restriction recommendation was hardly unexpected, its endorsement of moves to encourage taxis to compete on fare levels seems inconsistent.  The city has seen hefty fare increases in recent years, recommended by academics from Napier University, so is it now considered that fare levels have risen too far?

The debate on PH plating will seem somewhat surreal to most of us - Edinburgh must be one of the few areas in the UK without external PH plates, and surely the only major urban area still to take this basic step.  But the debate ably demonstrates the two usual schools of thought on PH markings - on the one hand, that any markings at all on PHVs encourages illegal plying for hire, while on the other hand, that PHVs should be easily identifiable as such to distinguish them from bogus cabs.  At this opposite extreme, many PHVs elsewhere in the UK sport door stickers and roofsigns - indeed many PHVs in some areas look more like 'cabs' than taxis do in other areas, whatever wording on stickers and roofsigns may be mandated or outlawed.

These inconsistencies merely confuse the public and illustrate the need for national standards.

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