North Tyneside PH Operator calls for changes in the law TAXI wars took a new twist after cabbies failed to bring a judicial review against a council.
Blueline taxis took Northumberland County Council to court over changes to licensing laws.
But a judge ruled the changes, which could stop Northumberland drivers working outside the county, were lawful. The hearing was the latest in a long-running row over taxi licensing in the North East.
In 2008, Newcastle City Council took the former Berwick Borough Council to court after Tyneside-based taxi drivers claimed their livelihoods were being threatened.
Drivers travelled to Berwick to get cheaper badges resulting in more than 400 taxis with plates issued in the town working for private hire firms in Newcastle and North Tyneside.
A High Court judge ruled Berwick Council had to consider where taxis were likely to work before issuing a licence.
And when Northumberland merged into a joint authority, bosses took the ruling on board and voted to change the priorities for giving licenses to favour drivers who to do most of their work in the county. Anyone who applied for a licence but admitted they wouldn’t be plying for hire in Northumberland would be likely to be refused.
And, while hackney carriages could still do private hire work for a company based in a different borough, they would be forced to keep a record of their pick-ups.
Blueline, one of Tyneside’s biggest taxi companies with a fleet of 600 cars, complained the changes interfered with the right of hackney carriage drivers to complete private hire work without a licence.
The Wallsend-based company asked for a judicial review of the policy changes. But after a hearing in Leeds, Judge Mr Justice Foskett dismissed their application.
He said: “Northumberland has a good number of hackney carriages that rarely, if ever, ply for hire within its area and spend most, if not all, of their time engaged in work outside its area acting for private hire operators over which it has no control.
“The testing and inspection of the hackney carriages it has licensed is rendered more difficult. This local control is intended for the protection of the travelling public.”
He said the High Court ruling obliged councils to check whether taxis were planning to work exclusively outside their area and gave them the ability to refuse licenses as a result.
Ian Shanks, managing director of Blueline, has previously criticised the law.
He said: “The legislation is antiquated, unclear and out-of-date. Blueline has been campaigning for many years for new taxi laws because the current laws that date from 1847 are simply out of date.”
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