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| Kings Lynn Cabbies don't like P/H vehicle conditions http://www.taxi-driver.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7249 |
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| Author: | JD [ Mon Nov 05, 2007 4:57 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Kings Lynn Cabbies don't like P/H vehicle conditions |
Lynn News and Advertiser October 30, 2007 West Norfolk taxi rules 'not fair' Cabbies in Lynn are being put out of business and thousands of pounds out of pocket because West Norfolk Council is failing to stick to its own rules, taxi firm bosses claim. They are furious the council's licensing panel has been granting first registrations and renewing licences for taxis falling well outside age and mileage limits it introduced in April, 2006, after they took out big loans to comply with the new rules. One taxi boss, Michael Jackson, of King's Lynn Airport Services, is even considering taking the council to court because it refused him a first registration for a five-year-old Volkswagen Passat with 44,000 miles on the clock on October 19. But three days later, the panel agreed to license five private hire vehicles for Barry's Cars all falling well outside the under one-year-old and less than 15,000 miles first registration condition, including a four-year-old Ford Mondeo which had covered 170,000 miles. And last month another Ford Mondeo, more than five-years-old and with 160,000 miles under its bonnet, was licensed. And three private hire vehicle licences were renewed even though these vehicles all exceeded the ten-year rule for renewals. Hazem Khalil, who earlier this year was running 22 hackney carriages and private hire vehicles, said he lost his business Haz's Cars because of the regulations and was now running just one hackney carriage in his own name. He invested £200,000 to get six new vehicles registered after the council changed the rules. But then some taxi firms got the same licences for much older cars and his business slumped by half because they could afford to undercut his prices. "Those new regulations broke us because the market place is no longer fair," he claimed. Ken Church, boss of KJS Taxis at Lynn, said local taxi drivers would be making their views known at a meeting with the council in the Kings Court offices next Tuesday, at 6pm. He runs four hackney carriages and two private hire vehicles and had to find £17,000 to buy a new car to keep within the rules. "I wouldn't have bought a brand new vehicle in the first place if I had known I could have got away with a secondhand one," Mr Church said. "They have put me and other operators in a lot of debt to continue operating under this new policy." Councillor Roy Groom, lead member of the licensing panel, said he could not discuss why five licences were granted outside the council guideline last Monday because of the 21-day period for appeals. But he said: "There are concerns by taxi drivers and by council members about the wording of the policies and in some ways they are ambiguous. People interpret things in different ways and you get different results." Cabinet member for community David Harwood said the council's licensing and appeals board looked at each case on its own merits. "I can understand that someone might feel aggrieved but that doesn't mean they know the reasons why that particular decision was taken," he said. "I have made inquiries about whether the system will accommodate any recall, but it's set up so they have to go through the magistrates' court." He said consultation was needed with taxi firms because of changes in the law from January and this would be an opportunity to revisit the council's rules. ______________________ |
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| Author: | edders23 [ Tue Nov 06, 2007 9:40 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm sounds to me like its a case of the council not wanting to take on the ones that would make their lives difficult for saying NO One thing puzzles me though the rules for PH are usually less strict than for hackneys and the way the article reads is the other way round |
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| Author: | no tips [ Tue Nov 06, 2007 11:09 pm ] |
| Post subject: | |
back handers comes to mind.... |
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