Taxi Driver Online

Ooh, one for the licensing anoraks.

Taxi licence loophole closed to improve public safety in Rother

https://www.bexhillobserver.net/news/ta ... -1-8679410

Steps to close a loophole in Rother’s taxi licensing system have been taken by the district council.

At a meeting on Monday (October 22), the authority’s licensing committee agreed to delegate more powers to officers, allowing them to immediately revoke all parts of a taxi licence where there are concerns around public safety.

Before approving the decision, licensing officer Richard Parker-Harding told councillors that the move was intended to close a loophole, where those who had their taxi driver’s licence revoked could still keep their operator’s and vehicle licence.

According to Mr Parker-Harding, the need to extend the delegated powers had been highlighted by a recent case where it would have been desirable to remove all three simultaneously.

He said: “This power has only been used twice in the last three years in cases of allegations of serious sexual misconduct.

“I would like to emphasise that there is no desire for officers to use the delegated powers except in exceptional cases and they will only use those powers after consultation with the chairman and vice-chairman of [the licensing] committee.

“A recent case has highlighted that we do have a bit of an anomaly in that officers have the power to revoke a driver’s licence but not their operator’s licence or vehicle licence. This meant they could in theory still be an operator and accept bookings for another driver in that vehicle.”

Mr Parker-Harding added that the licence holder would still be breaking the law if they drove the vehicle themselves.

The committee unanimously agreed to delegate the powers.

Not so sure about allowing delegated powers to suspend all three licences.

The driver could be kept away from the public while the case is considered in more detail, but suspending all three licences could easily cause a business collapse which could be founded on false allegation, say.

Sort of agree, but B&H officials do have that power.

I'm also not sure about the article. In Rother most cars are taxis, and anyone, even Jack the Ripper can give pre-booked work to taxis.

And if an owner doesn't drive a cab, should the vehicle license, of a fit and proper vehicle, be revoked putting a driver out of work?

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IDFIMH

Suppose there must be a few PH ops though, and in any case little point going through the process to extend it to vehicles and not ops, then possibly the same problem arising regarding ops further down the line.

But the loophole you highlight underlines my point - if it's necessary to revoke a PH ops licence because of what a *driver* has done, then to be consistent an HC circuit should be closed under similar circumstances.

Just had a look at the last set of national stats and Rother have more PH than I thought, 50.

I suspect many of them are vehicles used for council contracts.

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IDFIMH