Taxi Driver Online

At the last meeting of the Sefton licensing committee on 27 November the following item came up on the Agenda. I wonder who these two licensing officials are and who would want to target them?
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37. ATTACK ON PROPERTY OF TWO MEMBERS OF STAFF

The Chair, Councillor Hands, referred to recent disturbing incidents whereby two members of the Taxi Licensing Unit had their cars petrol bombed whilst parked outside their homes; and indicated that the Police were currently investigating the incidents.

The Sub-Committee Members, along with Mr. L. McCormick on behalf of all the Sefton hackney carriage and private hire trade organisations, condemned the attacks.

RESOLVED: That

(1) the Environmental Protection Director request Merseyside Police for the up to date position concerning the investigation into the attacks; and
(2) the Cabinet be requested to fund the installation of CCTV at the homes of the two employees to improve their security.
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Regards

JD

The rest of the minutes of that meeting are as follows.
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41. REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR HACKNEY CARRIAGE STANDS - ASDA (CENTRAL 12) AND SOUTHPORT AND FORMBY DISTRICT HOSPITAL

The Committee considered the report of the Technical Services Director
seeking funding for additional hackney carriage facilities.

LICENSING AND REGULATORY COMMITTEE - 27 NOVEMBER 2006 The report indicated that further to Minute No. 24 of 4 September 2006, requests had been made by the North Sefton Hackney Carriage Association and the Southport Station Taxi Association for hackney carriage stands at Asda (Central 12) and Southport and Formby District Hospital; that the Southport Area Committee had approved the hackney carriage stands subject to the approval of this Committee making available the necessary funding; and that the estimated costs of the two stands was £8,000 which could be funded from the capital reserves remaining following the relocation of the Taxi Licensing Service from Alexandra Hall to Irlam Road.

RESOLVED: That

(1) the request for funding for additional hackney carriage facilities at Asda (Central 12) and Southport and Formby District General Hospital be approved; and

(2) the Cabinet be requested to include the schemes totalling £8,000 in the Capital Programme.

42. REVIEW OF THE TAXI LICENSING SERVICE

Further to Minute No. 16(4) of 7 August 2006, the Committee considered the report of the Environmental Protection Director seeking approval of a proposed review of the Taxi Licensing Service. The report indicated that the review would be divided into four distinct areas, namely:

● current reporting mechanisms and accountability
● regulatory matters
● financial arrangements
● hackney carriage stands and private hire pick up points
concluded that the review would be commenced in December 2006 and take approximately 12 months to complete; and that the review was considered to be essential to assist the Committee in determining its policy on the numerical restriction on the numbers of licensed hackney carriages within Sefton and the future development of the Taxi Licensing function.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted and the Environmental Protection Director be authorised to submit recommendations on the future of the Taxi Licensing service following the review of the service.

43. REQUIRED STANDARDS FOR HACKNEY CARRIAGE AND PRIVATE HIRE DRIVER APPLICANTS

The Committee considered the report of the Environmental Protection Director advising of the licensed trade’s concerns regarding the level of criminal records checks available for EU accession state driver applicants; the need for certain accession state applicants to have a work permit before commencing employment within the UK; and the allegedly poor language, arithmetical and location finding skills of many licence applicants of whatever origin.

The report indicated that any applicant for a hackney carriage, horse omnibus or private hire driver’s licence must have a full driving licence, be medically fit and in statutory terms must be a “fit and proper” person to hold such a licence; that if any Council could not be sure that an applicant was fit and proper, then the application must be refused and the applicant then had a right of appeal to the Magistrates’ Court; that a major part of determining “fit and proper” was the current requirement for an enhanced level of Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) disclosure check which detailed all convictions, cautions and relevant matters whether otherwise considered “spent” or “live”; and due to the EU and UK legislation on the free movement of workers, there was an increasing number of applicants from EU accession states.

The report also detailed the levels of criminal records check operating in other EU countries; and changes that could be made to the existing policy,

LICENSING AND REGULATORY COMMITTEE - 27 NOVEMBER 2006

via the introduction of additional licensing conditions, to ensure that the public were properly safeguarded. The report concluded by making the following recommendations: That

(1) “The General Policy On Convictions” be re-named as “The General Policy-Determining Fitness of Licence Applicants”;

(2) the following two paragraphs be added to the said policy as a guide to defining “a fit and proper person”:

(a) “Any driver licence applicant that cannot obtain a satisfactory CRB enhanced level disclosure must produce a Certificate of Good Conduct from their last country of residence or home country, at their own expense. Any such applicant will only be granted a maximum of an annual licence until a satisfactory CRB enhanced level disclosure is obtained.”;

(b) Any driver licence applicant will only be granted a drivers’ licence if they satisfy the Council and they are entitled to work within the UK. Any applicant must currently hold and have held a valid EU or Northern Ireland driving licence for twelve months.”; and

(3) a further report regarding the standard of English comprehension, arithmetical ability and route finding skills be submitted following consultation with the trade and client groups. With the permission of the Committee, Mr. L. McCormick (South Sefton Hackney Carriage Drivers Association), Mr. T. Jones (North West Taxi Association) and Mr. A. Crabtree (North Sefton Hackney Carriage Association) addressed the meeting outlining the objections to the recommended revised conditions referred to in 2(a) and (b) above.

LICENSING AND REGULATORY COMMITTEE - 27 NOVEMBER 2006 RESOLVED: That

(1) consideration of the above matter be deferred to enable the Legal Director to report to the next meeting on whether the Council can insist that all EU accession state driver applicants be required to obtain an enhanced CRB disclosure check; and

(2) the Environmental Protection Director be requested to seek formally the views of all trade organisations on this matter.
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There is a rumour that it was a Manchester hackney driver and a private hire driver from Sussex

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

It looks like another hackney officer will be getting a new car for Christmas , that is 3 now, only a couple left, mind you one of them does not drive he comes to work on a bike

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

Now lets hope he doesnt park the bike in his living room

CC

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

Will they find the Airport allright ??????

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The views expressed by this contributor do not neccesarily reflect the policys of The GMB Nationally or of the GMB London Region.

I have left it till now to update on this situation, shortly before Christmas a third car was set on fire, but this time it was outside of the Hackney Office. consequently under advice from both the fire brigade and police the Hackney Office has been abandoned, it coincides with a new system that is being implemented, so in some ways has not had a dramatic effect, but nevertheless the Hackney officers for the time being are in a secret location.......

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!