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Luton taxi crackdown reveals 45 offences in one day

https://www.lutontoday.co.uk/news/peopl ... ay-3808316

32 taxis were stopped and checked on Gipsy Lane


Image: Twitter/BCH Road Policing Unit

A joint operation targeting taxis in Luton resulted in 45 offences being uncovered.

The operation, on Gipsy Lane in Luton on Monday, saw 32 taxis stopped and checked.

Bedfordshire Police, working with DVSA Enforcement, Luton Council Licensing, TfL Taxi and Licensing, and HM Revenue and Customs, have reported that eight taxi drivers were suspended, five tyre offences uncovered, and 19 reported for not displaying their badges and other offences.

The BCH Road Policing Unit tweeted: “Total of 45 offences found and dealt with”.

A spokesman for Luton Council said “In conjunction with the police, the council has carried out an enforcement exercise on Hackney Carriage and Private Hire vehicles in the Luton area. This took place in an area that has a high volume of vehicles licensed with other authorities due to its vicinity to London Luton Airport and we will be passing on full details to the relevant licensing bodies.

“Such actions are vital to ensure 100 per cent compliance with the terms of their trading licence and most importantly to ensure there is the utmost regard for passenger safety. This is an important trade within the town and beyond and all members of the public have the right to expect the very highest standards of professionalism and duty of care.

“We trust this and subsequent enforcement exercises will help maintain public confidence and remind operators of their responsibilities. We will not hesitate to take appropriate action on those who are breaking the law or failing to comply with current legislation.”

So 19 of the 45 offences were for not displaying their badge? And the 'other offences' wording at the end there suggests many of the 'offences' were even more minor

And usual PR blather from Luton Council in latter half of the article.


For what it's worth, I added a couple of commas to the Luton Today version. Not sure if my commas are technically correct, but surely an improvement on Luton Today's. You can work out which organisation is which if you know their names anyway, but if you were a foreign visitor (say) reading that, it would just look like a jumble of connected words, and not at all clear which organisation is which

5 tyre offences BUT 8 suspended so I suspect some of the detail wasn't revealed and I would not be surprised if we get a later story about unlicensed drivers caught or inadequate insurance

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Yes, obviously some more serious stuff that isn't detailed, but if the 45 offences in the headline includes the 19 badge wearing offences, then slightly overeggs the numbers in my opinion.

And probably mainly TfL-plated PHVs, so not much to see in the grand scheme of things, therefore in all likelihood wouldn't be surprised if we didn't hear another peep

Well we have heard another peep, but it's obviously a PR blame-shifting exercise by Luton Council, who probably won't like the way it was portrayed in the local press above.

So it's pointing out that most of the offences actually derived from cross-border cars, and not Luton-plated ones.

So it's maybe a bit like the local trade not liking the way these things are portrayed in the media, but here it's the council that doesn't seem to like it, because it reflects badly on them too

Of course, a major part of the first article was a quote from Luton Council, but perhaps whoever provided the quote thinks it maybe showed the local trade in a bad light, or maybe someone further up the foodchain saw the article and wasn't happy with the 'optics'

It's also possible that the local trade played a part in this clarification as well...


Just 6 vehicles stopped in council 'taxi' crackdown were from Luton - and none were Hackney Cabs

https://www.lutontoday.co.uk/news/polit ... bs-3812762

Only 6 of the 32 vehicles stopped were based in the town, and they were all private hire vehicles

Only six of the 32 taxis stopped and checked during a joint operation in Luton were town-based, according to the borough council.

Eight drivers were suspended, five tyre offences detected, while 19 were reported for not displaying their badges and other offences.

The crackdown involved the local authority’s licensing team, Bedfordshire Police with Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) enforcement, Transport for London (TfL) taxi and licensing, and HM Revenue and Customs.

Six private hire vehicles from Luton were among those stopped, with three of the drivers suspended.

The targeted activity in Gipsy Lane on Monday (Aug 15) revealed 45 offences were being committed altogether.

A council spokesman said: “This operation took place in an area with a high volume of vehicles licensed with other authorities because of its vicinity to London Luton Airport.

“We’ll be passing on full details to the relevant licensing bodies. Such actions are vital to ensure 100 per cent compliance with the terms of their trading licence

“Most importantly these checks ensure there’s the utmost regard for passenger safety.”

A breakdown of the 32 vehicles reveals the regional taxi activity which the authorities face visiting the town on a daily basis.

Figures supplied by LBC’s strategic regulatory manager Tony Ireland show there were 15 TfL private hire vehicles, the six from Luton, two from South Cambridgeshire and one from Central Bedfordshire.

Two Hackney carriages from Welwyn and one from Watford were found to be unsatisfactory, along with issues for one private hire vehicle from each of Three Rivers district, St Albans, Dacorum, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire.

The council spokesman added: “This is an important trade within the town and beyond. Passengers have the right to expect the highest standards of professionalism and duty of care.

“We trust this and subsequent enforcement exercises will help maintain public confidence and remind operators of their responsibilities. We won’t hesitate to take appropriate action on those breaking the law or failing to comply with current legislation.”

SOURCE: LBC officer’s statistics, message from LBC councillor supplying those figures, and archive material.

The fact that so many out-of-town cars were stopped near Luton Airport isn't a surprise to anyone who knows anything about the trade.

I suspect less than a quarter of the cars dropping at Gatwick are Crawley cars.

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