Derby bus lane rule rethink after cab driver wins appeal over fineA ROW over fines issued to cabbies for using Derby bus lanes has taken another twist after a tribunal found in favour of a taxi driver.
Mazzamal Hussain took his third such fine to the Traffic Penalty Tribunal, the final appeal stage for bus lane misdemeanours, and won.
After the adjudicator found in his favour, Derby City Council said it would need to "examine the decision" to decide whether or not it would affect the way it deals with taxis using bus lanes.
Mr Hussain, of Castleton Avenue, Normanton, said: "I'll be happy when all the drivers that have wrongly got tickets get them cancelled. Many of the jobs these drivers are doing are really short £2.70, £1.60 jobs. They can't afford these £30 fines."
The first cabbie to speak out publicly on the problem was Belper driver Chris Hillman, who told the Derby Telegraph he had been issued with nine £60 fines since July for driving in bus lanes in Albert Street, Victoria Street and Uttoxeter New Road despite signs saying taxis could use them.
Since he spoke out, several other cabbies have made similar complaints.
In justifying the fines, the council previously said that rules allowing taxis to use some of Derby's bus lanes only applied to licensed drivers of hackney carriages.
The city's rules say that cabs licensed in Derby were allowed to use the bus lanes for any journey but, if the taxis were licensed outside the city, drivers must be able to prove their journeys started or ended in the area they were licensed if they used the lanes.
Mr Hussain is licensed by Rushcliffe Borough Council and Mr Hillman is licensed by Amber Valley.
Mr Hillman said all of his jobs that led to fines had involved taking customers from Amber Valley to Derby. But he said there was no record of this.
The journey which led to the fine which Mr Hussain challenged was pre-booked from Uttoxeter New Road, via its bus lane, to Pride Park – entirely within the city and apparently breaking the rules.
But the 40-year-old cabbie wanted to test whether or not the council's rules would be backed by the tribunal.
And adjudicator Annie Hockaday found that the fine should not have been issued.
She said in her findings: "Adjudicators consistently take the view that, when a licensed hackney carriage/taxi does a pre-booked journey, wherever it starts and finishes, it retains its status as a taxi.
"I find that Mr Hussain's vehicle meets the definition of hackney carriage in the [traffic] order for this bus lane.
"I find that his vehicle was permitted to use the bus lane as a taxi even though it was carrying out a pre-booked journey outside its licensed area. The contravention did not occur."
That finding raises questions about whether all hackney carriage drivers registered outside of the city should be able to use the affected bus lanes, no matter where a route begins or ends.
Mr Hussain, a taxi driver for 15 years, said: "It should just be a case of, if you're a hackney cab, you can use the bus lane. Simple as that."
The fine for incorrectly driving in Derby bus lanes is £60, reduced to £30 if paid within 35 days.
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