MAN TOLD CYCLE-BASED TRANSPORT IS HACKNEY CARRIAGE
On yer bike!
That is what a Cleethorpes businessman wants to tell North East Lincolnshire Council after it classed his rickshaws as hackney carriages. Chris Sheard (30) owns Seeshores Rickshaws which uses cycle paths to take people from the Wonderland Market along to caravan parks three miles away.
He set up the business last Easter but has just received a letter from North East Lincolnshire Council saying his bikes need to be registered as hackney carriages.
To do that would mean fitting a roof sign and radio to the rickshaws.
Chris said: "It seems to be one rule for one and one rule for another. The Tonka train is allowed to go up and down on the cycle path.
"It is upsetting because I'm a local guy trying to invest business in Cleethorpes and all they are trying to do is put barriers up all the time.
"What I'm supplying is a unique form of environmental transport in Cleethorpes to get visitors around the resort."
In the letter, NELC said Chris needed a Hackney Carriage Drivers' Vehicle Licence to allow his rickshaws to be used in specific areas.
"The silly thing is they won't let me go up a cycle path, but if I have a hackney carriage, I could cycle up the A180 with people in the back," he said.
"I wouldn't want to do that."
And the business is riding high, with his first year going better than Chris had hoped.
He said: "This last year has been absolutely unbelievable.
"I've done weddings, birthdays, anniversaries and nobody's had a bad word to say about the rickshaws."
The letter came from Peter Freeman, of the environment control department at NELC.
"It was out of the blue," said Chris.
Chris owns two rickshaws, which have cost him £7,000 each, and has vowed that he will not stop providing the service to people in the resort.
"It's getting beyond a joke and I'm getting a bit sick of it now," he said.
"To be classed as a hackney carriage it has to be a saloon car with a minimum of four doors, and my rickshaws are never going to be that.
"I'm definitely going to seek legal advice about this."
A spokesman from the council said: "Mr Freeman is not willing to make any comment at this point."
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It's just cost the LTDA thousands of pounds trying to say these bloody things are HCs, and sadly they lost.
So why don't Grimsby council learn from that?
