JD wrote:
In England and Wales taxis are licensed under the Town and Police Clauses Act 1847 as incorporated into the Public Health Act 1875 to ply for hire within a ''prescribed distance''. Section 171(4) of the 1875 Act effectively allowed local authorities to apply the provisions of the Town Police Clause Act 1847, as it related to hackney carriages, to the whole of that authority's area. Usually the prescribed distance comprised the whole of the licensing authority's area, but some licensing areas comprise two or more prescribed distances, known as licensing zones.
Yesterday I highlighted what I thought were passages in the Maud Court of Appeal case that appeared to highlight the above view posted by JD.
I'm now more inclined to agree with JD that the above quote is the accurate exposition of the law. However, my opinion of the Maud case was derived by reading the case in isolation, for example the following passages on the first page of the judgement:
It is necessary at the outset to deal with the somewhat complex statutory provisions relevant to this appeal. One begins with the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 ("the 1847 Act"). Section 45 makes it an offence to drive, stand or ply for hire without a hackney carriage licence. The granting of such licences is covered by Section 37 which in its original form provided as follows:
"The commissioners may from time to time licence to ply for hire within the prescribed distance, or if no distance is prescribed, within five miles from the General Post Office of the city, town or place to which the special Act refers, (which in that case shall be deemed the prescribed distance,) such number of hackney coaches or carriages of any kind or description adapted to the carriage of persons as they think fit."
Originally Section 1 of the 1847 Act provided that the Act only applied where it was subsequently incorporated in a local Act of Parliament. But the Public Health Act 1875, by Section 171, extended the provisions relating to hackney carriages in the 1847 Act to all urban districts in England and Wales. The licensing authority is now the district or borough council. Section 171 of the 1875 Act also defined the expression "within the prescribed distance" in Section 37 of the 1847 Act as meaning "within any urban district".
Correct me if I'm wrong, but JD's quote seems to be saying that the 1875 Act gave LAs the option to treat the whole area as the relevant one for the purposes of plying for hire under the 1847 Act, but on the other hand could continue to use prescribed distances, which we now describe as zones.
On the other hand, the third paragraph of the Court of Appeal judgement seems to be saying that the 1875 Act automatically replaced the 'prescribed distance' criterion by the whole area being treated as the relevant one for the purposes of the 1847 Act.
Thus to that extent I don't think the Court of Appeal case explains the relevant law too clearly.
Apart from this aspect of the case, I'm saying no more on this, but does anyone know a good lawyer
