gusmac wrote:
Jasbar wrote:
"When a driver meets with the complaints officer and/or the cab inspector he/she is informed that a complaint has been made, that action can be taken in respect of complaints that can be proven or are admitted and that the officers do not have the authority to suspend his/her taxi Driver's licence."
I suppose that begs the question of what powers of suspension the licensing committee themselves have, rather than the complaints officer or cab inspector?
And a definition of
proven...
Well spotted. And the powers of the Committee are without bounds.
They can do what they want, to any licence holder, whenever they want. They don't need any legally defined grounds, just enough to make the determination that an individual is not "fit and proper" (to be a member of their privilege club - they view licence holding as a privilege and not a right) and the licence is gone. Temporarily or forever.
They do this because the reasons for their decisions are a secret, decided in secret, and with not being encumbered by benchmarks, standards or precedents they can make it up as they go along. Which means that two individuals deemed guilty of the same misdemeanour can be given widely disparate punishment. Even to the point where the difference can be whether the committee likes you, despises you, or sees you as a political or other opponent.
Councillors are not accountable for the lives they wreck through their decisions. We don't know what they do, or how they do it, because no public record is kept.
And all this renders their committee hearings little more than a kangaroo court, redolent of what was the norm in fascist countries last century.
How is anyone getting a fair hearing under these conditions? And when public authorities are charged to protect individuals' rights, not breach them?
And, if you ask at the outset what your rights are in the council's process? Their answer doesn't amount to even one syllable of rights accorded to you.