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| The Reiver Feb 2010 http://www.taxi-driver.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13276 |
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| Author: | captain cab [ Mon Jan 25, 2010 7:49 pm ] |
| Post subject: | The Reiver Feb 2010 |
The Reiver Fit to lead? A few of you out there no doubt read “Private Eye” magazine which is published every two weeks. Every edition carries a section called “rotten boroughs” and interestingly enough a few places have caught my eye in their 2009 awards. Bournemouth Council, the one that insisted all taxi drivers have NVQ and BTEC qualifications to improve the image of the local cab trade, gained recognition for Services to the Adult Entertainment Industry. This was after the local paper the Daily Echo reported that porn was found on the laptop of council leader’s Stephen MacLoughlin’s computer, Mr MacLoughlin’s job was saved after he survived a vote of no confidence by opposition councillors. Over in Somerset, Liberal Democrat Andrew Woolley, elected to represent the Lyngford ward in 2007, resigned from the post in August 2009 after discoveries were made by the authority’s IT department of a Bestiality porn film on his laptop. Sounds a bit woof to me! Salford Council recently refused to hold an unmet demand survey on the basis of cost (even though the cost of demand surveys comes from the self funding licensing function) and subsequently deregulated the Hackney carriage trade. Seemingly Salford Council has no qualms about spending tax payers money on more appropriate schemes, such as ballet. They were awarded with the Value for Money award for spending £9K to allow 9 children to visit the Lowry Centre to briefly meet Cuban ballet star Carlos Acosta. According to the Salford Star, the 9 children could have been sent to Cuba for 7 days, staying in a 4 star hotel saving the council some £2K! Of course, this is the same Salford council that earlier in 2009 sent a letter to a local resident mistakenly informing her that her husband had died in one of their care homes, after bursting into tears the pensioner found out her husband was still alive. So perhaps there’s hope for the Salford taxi trade yet, maybe it’s all been a huge ‘mistake’. Wirral council seem to have missed out on the awards, shame I know, but I think it would be bereft of me not to mention them, especially considering how much they like this magazine. Wirral council were planning to close 11 of the boroughs 24 libraries until Sue Charteris, a government inspector, pointed out this would have been illegal. In her report she stated; "The council failed to make an assessment of local needs in respect of its Library Services." "I am profoundly concerned at the lack of transparency of this process." "The council has not been able to demonstrate that it has had due regard to the general requirements of children. I consider this to be a breach of its statutory duties." Do any of those points ring a bell towards you Hackney folks on the Wirral and your dealings with your council? Whilst you think about that, spare a thought for those nice folks from Wirral council going on a trip to China later this year courtesy of expo 2010. More ‘coincidences’ in the next section. Wyre Forest District Council have been mentioned in dispatches in taxitalk before. From licensing a ‘tuk-tuk’ to insisting all taxis become wheelchair accessible. I suppose taxis in Wyre Forest will be needed for at least one of their councillors after Councillor Syed Mumshad Ahmed, was caught driving his BMW car into Wyre Forest Conservative headquarters in May 09 despite being disqualified for six months. Councillor Ahmed could perhaps share a cab with his colleague Councillor Susan Meekings who was convicted of drink driving during November 09. She told the court she only drove from a “private” driveway near her neighbour’s home to her garage, after being dropped off by a ward resident, Terrence Sparks. She had drunk three to four glasses of Diamond White cider at his home, while visiting him about an ongoing issue with a walkway, Kidderminster magistrates heard. She explained that Mr Sparks had dropped her off on the driveway, as she did not want her partner, Mike Beard, to know she had been to visit him, as they had fallen out a few years ago. No doubt in the cab they can discuss many things, possibly including how long their suspension from the local Tory party will last? A councillor from West Lindsey District Council will definitely be looking for taxis in near future after being caught drink driving. Councillor Ian Fleetwood has been banned for driving car for next 18 months after failing a roadside breath test. Incidentally along with losing his driving license he was fined a “massive” £410 with a £15 surcharge and ordered to pay £60 costs. Councillor Fleetwood can perhaps get a lift from a councillor in West Lindsey who actually still has a driving license, the former leader of the council Councillor Bernard Theobald resigned amidst allegations of planning irregularity reported in the local paper, Theobald maintains his innocence and is determined to fight the allegations. Councillor Thomas Glover O.B.E. will be able to enjoy the benefits of Sefton’s great taxi service during the next 6 or so months after he banned from driving in October 09 following the totting up procedure. Councillor Glover OBE, received five penalty points, triggering a six-month driving ban, suspended until appeal for failing to stop at a crossing and running over a seven year old boy. The councillor is Sefton’s longest standing councillor first elected in 1973. In December 09 Blackburn Liberal Democrat Councillor Yusuf Sidat finally resigned, this was after spending the previous four months in India, in 2008 he received calls to quit after apparently 'abandoning' his constituents for the second time in eight months again disappearing to India. The new Cheshire West and Chester Council also appears to have at least one Councillor with previous. The Chester chronicle reported the following during August 2008 regarding Councillor Max Drury. Chester magistrates heard Cllr Drury fell out with James Meadows of Longfield Avenue, Upton, after Mr Meadows admitted taking money from the business saying it was an advance on his dividend but which the councillor regarded as embezzlement. Cllr Drury was criticised by District Judge Nicholas Sanders for relying on his status as a councillor when caught making threats against Mr Meadows and his wife Joanne through email, telephone calls and calling at their home. Cllr Drury later resigned as a Conservative but said he would continue to “serve the people” as an independent and will take up his position as a councillor on the new Cheshire West and Chester Council from next April, to which he was elected in May. Councillor Drury is currently on the new Cheshire council website marked as a “Conservative”. Strangely enough the same paper reported in December 09 a ‘mistake’ by the councils gritting team in heavily gritting the ‘Private’ road where council deputy leader Les Ford lives whilst many other roads were left untreated. Concerned resident Tom Farrall, 78, of nearby Bates Lane, said: “The council gritted his road but they didn’t grit any of the other roads. “It was a huge gritter. I’m dead against abuse, it’s wrong. Undoubtedly this is the same kind of mistake that Rochdale Council made in August 2009 whilst rather forgetfully erecting their Christmas decorations some 4 months prematurely! We are only human and we all make mistakes, Bath and North East Somerset Council for example did actually apologise in 2009 of employing a social worker knowing that she had previously been found guilty of hiring a hitman to kill her husband. I suppose the good people of Harrow will be reassured about the state of their public lavatories, as one councillor seems to have taken the matter to hand, quite literally. The Harrow Times reported; Former Conservative Councillor Robert Benson was caught receiving oral sex from a 56-year-old Essex man by officers of Rayners Lane Safer Neighbourhood team, at around 3.45pm, on Wednesday, June 25 2008. After initially claiming the act was performed against his will, he eventually pleaded guilty at Wimbledon Magistrates Court on Wednesday, August 6, and was fined £205. The council has already filled the position he used to hold on a series of panels, including an influential planning committee where he has been replaced by Councillor Hussain Akhtar, of Canons ward. Councillor Benson now sits as an independent on Harrow Council. Coincidences Aug 12 2009; Planning mistake delays decision on Peel's £4.5bn Wirral Waters scheme THE first major phase of a £4.5bn plan to redevelop Wirral’s docklands was given formal approval last night. The Northbank East proposals for Wirral Waters were approved at a meeting of Wirral Council’s planning committee when it met last night at Wallasey town hall. Development director for Peel Holdings, Lindsay Ashworth said he was “absolutely delighted” that councillors had given the scheme unanimous approval. 30 Dec 2009 ... Wirral Council is sending officers out to Shanghai at a cost of ... “To not grasp this opportunity would be a grave mistake for Wirral.” Lindsey Ashworth is development director for Peel Holdings, chief sponsor of Wirral’s Expo 2010 stand. He said: “It is very easy to undermine or criticise, but I expect that to come from the mouths of those who have done nothing for Wirral, and have no concept of the lost word ‘vision’. “China is really the only world expanding economy that is going to be a driving force for the next decade, so it makes absolute business sense to engage with the business people there. “To not grasp this opportunity would be a grave mistake for Wirral.” Peel Holdings own Liverpool Airport on 11th December 09 clickliverpool.com reported: A taxi driver has been left HACKED off, after Liverpool John Lennon Airport banned him for spending a penny. Mark Yates, 45, has been driving his black cab for 23 years, and pays airport owners Peel Holdings more than £4000 each year to work from the outside the passenger terminal. Peel Holdings own the Trafford Centre, Trafford’s Hackney Carriage fleet cannot stand for hire at the Trafford Centre as the facility is serviced by “Our on-site ‘taxi’ service, Passenger Cars, offers wheelchair friendly vehicles operating from the taxi rank in front of The Great Hall.” The Graduate At the time of writing there has been much rumpus about a certain Northern Irish politician called Iris Robinson. She apparently had an affair with a 19 year old man and then managed to allegedly get him funding to the tune of £50K for a cafe bar. She also upset a few homosexuals by stating her opposition to homosexuality. Obviously whilst I think Iris is a fox, given such information she’s not the type of girl you’d want to take to a swinger’s party. Shame. Damn shame. Indeed, she apparently stated homosexuals should seek a cure. Well, I don't really think trying to find a gothic rock band originating from Crawley will actually sort anything and if she’s giving such advice it should cease forthwith. Smooth Criminal For those of you with memories longer than the average goldfish will remember the furore caused by Spin doctor Jo Moore and transport department press chief Martin Sixsmith back in 2001. They had the gall to suggest September 11th would be a good day to ‘bury bad news’. I can understand this, its not exactly politically correct, but when there’s nothing going on in the world the mundane newsworthy items do tend to get a lot more column inches than they would, for example, the day after four jet aircraft are taken over by terrorists and subsequently crashed killing all on board and many innocent bystanders. The newfangled NTA website is thankfully divided into handy sections. Basically, if a taxi related story concerning driver licensing is reported, then the NTA website dude puts it on the website with a category attachment under driver licensing. So you can easily click on a category of choice, be it CCTV related or Cross border and that will give you all kinds of locally reported stories about that particular category. You can tell from the main page what is happening on a national basis, at the time of writing the top three taxi related stories most commonly publicised on a local basis are (in a reverse X factor type of drumroll) at number 3, Ranking Issues, number 2, illegal plying for hire and at number 1.......Driver Licensing. Going back one moment, this is where I begin to understand what the Labour Spin doctor was on about. You see with taxis and the local press nothing is exactly easy. Whilst there are many local journalists who do an admirable job, unearthing many a story that leads to the truth being ousted, there are an equally inept bunch of local journalists who seem to have a insane dislike of all things taxi. On one hand you have a taxi trade whose protagonists have an opinion on everything and no clue whatsoever how to shrink those views into decent bite sized quotes for the local press. Indeed the quotes attributed to taxi drivers in the local press are often embarrassing at best and cringeworthy at worst, typically telling the newspapers readership absolutely zero. On the other hand you have the local press, they aspire to one day reach the holy land of Fleet Street and they see every story as an opportunity to enhance their CV. Why else would a increase in Hackney Carriage fares be described as a fare “hike”? Why is it always a “hike”? I sincerely believe the taxi trade when wanting something from the local authority would be better off actually stating ‘The taxi trade think the council are a gang of [edited by admin]’, because that is actually honest and the press wouldn’t dare print it. They entice the spokesman to be quoted as saying ‘We think the council are wrong” which is probably right, but the council read that and immediately you are faced with a “them against us” mentality. Since when has a politician ever admitted being wrong? I seriously think the NTA need to do a book on this, the taxi trade are truly awful in respect of the press, often on the defensive. Casey recently told me he received a call from the BBC regarding convicted criminals driving taxis and what was the NTA view. Casey apparently asked the reported how many BBC employees had criminal convictions and how many would lose their jobs or would be suspended if they were convicted of an offence such as speeding. Strange, that wasn’t actually reported! As ever I digress. The number one reported story locally is driver licensing. As stated earlier, whilst we don't need a September 11th, I can see the point and wonder why, when at the time of writing a reported 200,000 people may have been killed in an earthquake in the Caribbean, I read a story regarding taxi driver convictions in the West Midlands. Casey was quoted as saying ““If someone does have a lot of previous convictions he is likely to have to go before a council and explain himself” which is something to do with human rights, I’m not exactly a shrinking violet here, but I wonder what the hell a council are supposed to do? If they issue a license and the driver turns out to be a lunatic then they get castigated, if they don't issue a license the decision maybe overturned by a magistrate, either way they will suffer at the hands of the press. The GMB, who apparently call themselves “the taxi driver’s union”, said the system needed to be tightened. “What we don’t want is a tick box system saying a check is done and the licence issued,” a spokesman said. “The policy must be robust. It must take into account the nature of the offence and does it have any effect on the job they are doing.” Great quotes that actually mean zero. The system needs tightened? How tight......can a council hire ‘Timecop’? Perhaps we should have soothsayers on licensing committees or as a prerequisite for a licensing officer qualification? The public and councils refuse to believe that a cab driver will often go to work and earn well below the minimum wage, indeed, if you ask for a limit on licenses the public don't believe a limit should be there. After all, you’re there to serve them. I picked up a customer the other night whoi actually thought I was earning £40K per year. Indeed, I honestly believe a council actually think that in most provincial towns we can actually achieve a hailed fare by driving around town centres. I’m sorry to get on my high horse here. Correction. I’m not sorry at all, I have a point to make and whilst you’re sitting over ranked I’ll make sure you get it. |
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