Taxi Driver Online

Seven taxi drivers set to learn their fate following probe by council's licensing committee

SEVEN taxi and private hire drivers will learn their fate next week following seven meetings inside the space of four hours by Fenland District Council Licensing Committee. The drivers have been invited, at half hourly intervals, to appear before a panel of councillors who will decide if their licence can be renewed.

Some of those appearing will have committed driving offences and once these get reported to the DVLA the council often summons the offenders to a separate hearing. One of those attending next week, for instance, was issued with a fixed penalty notice and handed three points on his licence before Christmas after police caught him behind the wheel using a mobile telephone.

Councillor Kit Owen, licensing committee chairman, is scheduled to hear all seven applications along with two members of the council, listed as being Councillor Ralph Bellamy and Councillor Robert Scrimshaw.

Up to 45 firms across Fenland are licensed for private hire or hackney carriage licences and last year the committee met frequently to determine if drivers could continue. However this is the most cases heard in one day.

Last month the committee heard an application for a licence after hearing that a Criminal Records Bureau check had revealed a driver to have a conviction for theft.

Councillors were advised they needed to "balance the importance of rehabilitation against the need to protect the public". The committee, meeting in private, heard a summary of the convictions and questioned the driver before deciding he could have a licence "subject to the completion of the knowledge test".

Councillors also renewed the licence of a driver convicted of three traffic offences "with a due warning that future offences will be viewed with the utmost seriousness".

Last August the committee decided one driver could only have his licence renewed if police removed one of the cautions against him.

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IDFIMH

Surprised they have any cabbies left up there!

I wonder how many councillors or licensing officials have clean licenses?

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IDFIMH

theres another couple of thousand in peterborough waiting in the wings !

Received this e-mail from someone connected to the Fenland trade. Don't know whether to cry, or to cry.

Alex

Several colleagues of mine have today attended a Fenland District Council Hearing because they had accumulated 6 points on their Driving Licence. They have all had their Hackney Licences suspended for 3 MONTHS!

As they are all to appeal to the Magistrates Court they have been told they can continue working pending the outcome of their appeals.

Are you aware of any High Court ruling that can help them in this matter. I am aghast that a man can have his livelyhood taken away and face the obvious consequences such as no money for food, mortgage etc just because they have six points on their licence. Surely the Council is overstepping the mark here and acting above the law. Even the courts often let people keep their driving licenses when they have 12 or more points if it meant losing their livelyhood. These people only have six points, but the Council is punishing them far too hard don't you think?

What are your views please? Any help you can give or advice would be very much appreciated.

Thank you in anticipation of your help.

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ʎɐqǝ uo pɹɐoqʎǝʞ ɐ ʎnq ı ǝɯıʇ ʇsɐן ǝɥʇ sı sıɥʇ

Simply the best taxi forum in the whole wide world. www.taxi-driver.co.uk

They really must appeal, and I would be confident of success.

Taking someone livelihood away for three months is totally out of order, and those scumbag councillors should be ashamed of themselves.

Maybe some should do a press release slagging off this Tory council.

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IDFIMH

They'll win in the Magistrates. The Council will be drilled another @sshole by the Magistrates.