Taxi Driver Online

We've previously previewed the heath case but its interesting.

R (on the application of Heath) v Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council

Administrative Court

Maurice Kay J

16 October 2000

Local authority – Contract – Contract for hackney carriage driver for the transportation of pupil to a special needs school – Authority writing to driver stating that in order to renew the contract he would have to obtain a private hire vehicles operator's licence – Whether authority misconstruing law – Town Police Clauses Act 1847, s 37 – Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976, s 80.

The applicant, H, was the licensed driver of a hackney carriage (cab). He was awarded a contract by the defendant authority to transport a pupil to a special needs school until April 2001. In December 1999, the authority wrote to H stating , inter alia, that as from April 2001, those persons tendering for contracts would be required to hold a private hire vehicle operators licence. H's cab was licensed pursuant to s 37 of the Town Police Clauses Act 1847. H sought judicial review of the authority's decision.

He contended, inter alia, that the licensing provisions in relation to private hire vehicles, under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 was a completely distinct scheme which did not apply to licensed cab drivers. He submitted that the authority's misapplication of the law meant that the conditions set out in their letter of December 1999 were illegal.

The court ruled:

The authority had misconstrued the law in relation to the regulation of hackney cabs and private hire vehicles, since s 80 of the 1976 Act provided that a private hire vehicle could be a motor vehicle 'other than a hackney carriage'. It followed that the conditions set out in their letter of December 1999 had been misconceived. Therefore it would be unlawful for the council, when awarding new contracts, to use the approach that they had.