toots wrote:
captain cab wrote:
mancityfan wrote:
I think there should be an operating address for an operators licence, and it should be in the area of the issuing authority.
I agree
I mean the proviso - any complaints contact acme enterprises, silicon valley, California cant be good.
Clearly, but, any Uk address should be sufficient
Nope

Let me first of all say that Bolton indeed every other council that licenses private hire vehicles and operators — is legally "a controlled district". Under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976, within section 80 a controlled district means: "any area for which this Part of this Act is in force by virtue of a resolution passed by a district council under section 45 of this Act."
Section 45, regardless of the legal requirement for advertising and resolving of the provisions, sets a relevant area. That relevant area is defined thus in section 45(2):
(a) "if the Act of 1847 is in force throughout the area of the council, that area; and
(b) if the Act of 1847 is in force for part only of the area of the council, that part of that area."
I automatically assume that at some stage Boltonhas formally adopted the 1976 Act, and if so, then section 80(2) comes
"In this Part of this Act references to a licence, in connection with a controlled district, are references to a licence issued by the council whose area consists of or includes that district, and "licensed" shall be construed accordingly."
Without delving deeper into quoting the legislation "the area" is set by the 1847 Act, which in turn was defined by section 15 of the Transport Act 1985 which set the boundaries for the whole of the council's area.
In Section 57 of the 1976 Act, and the wording of that Act which appears to have confused many as to where they can issue licences.
Let me first say that section 57 is NOT a section of the Act which applies to the setting of conditions, or anything other than the power to request information. And that information is only available for local authorities to decide whether to issue a licence or not, as the case may be.
The confusing wording is contained in section (2)(b)(ii): the words are "the address or addresses, whether within the council or not, for which he intends to carry on a business in connection with private hire vehicles licensed under this Part of this Act."
In, Murtagh —v- Bromsgrove, the issue of the wording of section 57 was raised on behalf of the Appellant in an attempt to protect their position. when the suggestion that section 57 meant that licences could be issued outside the area was dismissed in a single sentence, with raised eyebrows as to why anyone should suggest that this was the case, by Lord Justice Kennedy, who said: "This information would merely allow a local authority to decide whether to issue a licence or not, and if the application was from outside the area it would be automatically refused."
but the most important aspect would be that the staff of Bolton licensing department are not authorised officers of the surrounding districts, as required by the legislation, and effectively they have no measure of control over any operation, the recording of any records, the access to those records.
Quite clearly even the testing of vehicles is restricted under section 50 of the 1976 Act to "at such place within the area of the council".