I wrote down TDO,s web address for him as he did not know about it, and I said that he would soon find out how to deal with the PH illegally plying by coming on here

alot of the drivers have brothers and cousins etc driving the ph and don't want to rock the boat with the family

Marky V ...................... you need to make a request to view the councils Licensing Account, you will probably need to do this in writing. If they do not provide you with it you can make a Freedom of Information request which you may have to submit to the Councils Best Value Officer. If they offer any delay or do not provide the information then you can report them to the Council Ombudsman and the Disterict Auditor.

The council can only charge a fee to cover the incurred costs of operating the licensing function .................. they are not allowed to either make a profit or to use the monies collected for another purpose.

We did this in Gateshead and the matter is currently in the hands of the Disterict Auditor .................... since our case started our council have collected over £1m in fees yet have NO designated staff for either Taxis or Private Hire ..................... it is clear that not all councils conduct their financial accounts in accordance with the law, but the process to bring them to account is not a short one.

B. Lucky

this is a problem day in, day out in Leeds. The local licensing enforcement vehicle comes out once a month at best, on the busiest day of the month and does bugger all, the police do bugger all, Leeds is a joke, as a Hack here in Leeds it's a nightmare. You tell the police on the street, they look at you blankly, licensing enforcement here are also a joke. Won't do a thing, as skippy said what the other driver said, they won't deregulate, well to be truthfull it already is, we've been waiting for rank spaces for months, they can't be arsed to do what they're paid for, but can find paint to put a yellow box at the entrance to the station quick enough, lazy ba$tards, i reckoned that they must get close to at least a million quid a year from the hacks and ph as fees, but give nowt back, this must be one of the worst cities in the country for 'pirating', we're a laughing stock, BUT the hacks here won't stand together, alot of the drivers have brothers and cousins etc driving the ph and don't want to rock the boat with the family, until we all stick together and force our companies to actually do something, we're up that river without a paddle!! oh btw, there is no union here, we have trade committees but are as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike, the ATA lost the airport for us, JTC who deal with the station do nothing, all self important nobodies puffing hot air, and doing nothing to improve the hackney trade here. they are all old dinosaurs at the respective companies. time for them to move on and let people actually do some worthwhile work to improve the situation, not provide lipservice. The committees of Streamline/Telecabs and Citycabs should be ashamed of themselves, Eurocabs committee have at least tried, but are a smallish company that noone in the trade will take seriously, shame the first two don't try as hard as the third one!! I'm trying to form a pressure group with other concerned drivers to do something that our own committees should be doing, but a few individuals to start with won't achieve anything, but from acorns grow oak trees