Sussex wrote:
I find it interesting that the council believe they are doing the local taxi trade a favour by not restricting.
Not sure that view is shared by many owners in restricting areas.
Yes, and of course the threat of private hire has always been there, as illustrated by its huge growth in Edinburgh and associated fare discounting, not to mention 203020 in Dundee, although it withered on the vine over the years.
However, to a degree I can see where the council are coming from - the days of huge growth in demand for *public* hire cabs is probably long past, so limiting numbers will have less impact than it would have done 20-30 years ago, say. In fact, in London it's probable that there's significantly less demand for public hire cabs because of Uber, although whether that would put growth in new badges into reverse is a different matter.
By the same token, here in the East Fife zone the cap was only applied about 13 years ago when there were 150 taxis, so whether it's made much difference in the long term I don't know - it's perhaps instructive that plates are only worth £3k(?) and there's still effectively zero private hire, so no indication that limiting taxi numbers has led to growth in PHC numbers.
If the cap had been applied 30 years ago when there were maybe 50 taxis then plates would no doubt be worth a lot more, and there would be significant private hire numbers, but that just didn't happen.
So it's maybe a bit like locking the stable door years after the horse has bolted, sort of thing, and maybe that's the case in Warwick too.
Still suspect it *would* be in the interests of those in Warwick if the council had restricted numbers, but not the same benefit as would have happened a few decades ago.