Taxi Driver Online

Hackney carriage drivers in Milton Keynes delighted with decision to limit numbers


HACKNEY carriage drivers were left whooping in delight after Milton Keynes councillors agreed to keep a cap on the number of people allowed to drive the vehicles in the city.

Around 100 people were packed into the public gallery at the Full Council meeting last night (Wednesday) to hear the Council’s decision on whether the Hackney Carriage industry should be regulated.

Drivers have been fighting for 11 years to limit the number of people allowed to enter the trade due to the falling amount of business on offer at ranks in the city after a decision was taken by Milton Keynes Councillors in 2002 to allow anybody to become a Hackney Carriage driver.

The council meeting last night heard from several drivers who said that the Milton Keynes Central train station was the only good place for business, and some drivers who had worked for up to 15 hours were left with as little as £15 from their day’s work.

In June 2013, the Milton Keynes Hackney Carriage Association 2011 requested that the trade was once again regulated, with drivers in the city having gone up from 78 in 2002 to 219 today.

That request was met last month by the council’s Regulatory Committee, but three motions were put forward to full council last night to try to overturn the decisions by Councillors Andy Dransfield and Cec Tallack.

“It seems fundamentally wrong that if anybody wanted to start in the Hackney Carriage trade, they cannot because there are restrictions in place,” said Cllr Dransfield.

But others felt that it would be wrong for full council to overturn a decision already made by the licencing committee, who they said had been given evidence and the full facts about why the trade should be regulated.

Cllr Peter Marland said: “We should not be making decisions on peoples’ lives and it undermines the committee that have already made this decision.

“We could call in every single decision and that’s why we delegate powers so what some councillors have done tonight undermines that system.”

Councillors threw out the motions by a vote of 29 to 14, with three abstentions.


Read more: http://www.mkweb.co.uk/News/Hackney-car ... z2qvxBqfxj

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Maybe some in other areas may learn from this........................you must be................. proactive this could have been prevented years ago ...........now their reactive and have already paid the price...............the message hang on to what you have before it reaches this stage ffs ................common sense i would have thought .........but not to cab drivers..................cnuttttz

_________________
All posts by this contributor are made in a strictly personal capacity

I AM PROUD TO BE A CITIZEN NOBODY'S SUBJECT http://www.republic.org.u

F88K EM ALL WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

BOOZE BOOZE BOOZE

Can they restrict driver numbers? I thought it was just vehicle numbers.

_________________
Grandad,

Press and no doubt a few councillors getting it wrong again.

_________________
IDFIMH