Taxi Driver Online

Following on from TDO's article www.taxi-driver.co.uk/unmet.htm Woking's licensing officer has informed TDO that the end of quotas ruled out on 5th July 2004, when the ECONOMIC OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE RESOLVED:
(i) Woking Borough Council maintains the limit of HC licences at 54;
(ii) further consideration be given to the issue of new licences for HC vehicles which are wheelchair accessible;
(iii) a programme of specialist driver training, and an understanding of disability awareness be introduced;
(iv) Officers be asked to consider the feasibility of additional official ranks in Woking Borough; and
(v) a further survey be carried out in September 2006 in line with current Government guidance.
http://www.woking.gov.uk/papers/minutes ... D.0001.pdf
is to be reviewed just two months later.

In a report to councillors on the same committee http://www.woking.gov.uk/papers/reports ... D.0008.pdf officials are recommending:
(i) from 1 April 2005 the limit on the number of Hackney Carriage (HC) Licences issued is removed;
(ii) the two temporary HC vehicle licences numbers 80 and 81 operating from Brookwood Station be made permanent from 1 April 2005;
(iii) following the removal of the Council’s limit on the number of HCs, new HC licences issued from 1 April 2005 to only be granted to vehicles that are brand new purpose-built, wheelchair accessible from both sides, black, London Style or Euro cabs ;
(iv) all HC vehicles presented for licensing after 1 April 2012 to meet the same criteria as in (iii) (i.e. brand new purpose built, side wheelchair accessible, black, London Style or Eurocabs);
(v) maximum age limits for vehicles meeting criteria in (iii) and (iv) to be 10 years;
(vi) from 1 April 2005 all Private Hire (PH) vehicles presented for licensing are to be fitted with an illuminated yellow top box of a prescribed size and design displaying the words “Advance Booking Only” and all HC vehicles not meeting the criteria in (iii) presented for licensing from 1 April 2005 to be fitted with an illuminated white top box of a prescribed size and design displaying the words “Taxi – For Hire”.

Alex

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ʎɐqǝ uo pɹɐoqʎǝʞ ɐ ʎnq ı ǝɯıʇ ʇsɐן ǝɥʇ sı sıɥʇ

Simply the best taxi forum in the whole wide world. www.taxi-driver.co.uk

So some poor sod may have bought a plate last month in belief that restriction would last at least till 2006, and now they might go next April.

April the 1st, at least we now know who the fools are.

buyer beware if you buy a taxi automatic license will only last to renewal.

A valid point.

But what I can't work out is why the council didn't delay the first committee meeting until they had finshed the second report.

The SUD survey said there wasn't any un-met demand, thus the council was under no legal obligation to decide straight away. If the survey said more plates were needed, then it would have been different, but it didn't.

But even then the council would have had good justification to delay a month or two on the basis of the govs action plan.

So in my honest opinion, they get 2 out of 10 for the first effort, but 11 out of 10 for the last.

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IDFIMH

there are 2 wings to a council, the officials and elected members

as can be seen officials are not having it there way here, this looks councillor led.

and there needs to be no explananation for that.

But why not do both the SUD survey and the Gov action plan at the same time?

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IDFIMH

I seem to recall recently someone advocating the idea that investing 40 grand in a plate was a far wiser and a better idea than investing 40 grand in property. It's amazing how quickly reality rears its ugly head.

It has been suggested that the plates in woking have a black market value of around 50 grand, I wonder how many have changed hands recently?

Mr. Kavanagh’s euphoric outbursts at the Governments published response to the OFT report doesn't seem to have yet filtered down to the elected Councilors of Woking. No doubt Mr Kavanagh is already planning the mobilisation of his Barmy Army for the Woking day of Action.

Best wishes

JD

John,
can I beg you to excuse my ignorance, who the hell is Mr Kavanagh, and what relevance is he to self employed people of Woking?

It was resolved that "A Hackney Carriage task group be appointed to work with the Portfolio Holder to consider the proposals which would be presented to the Executive at its meeting on 30 September 2004 and Membership to consist of Councilors R P Ford, N Hinks, P Goldenberg and a Member of the Conservative group"

The Taxi Liaison Committee wasn't set up until this meeting in July. The forthcoming reports due in September are mainly about best practice. I assume the New Task Group took everything on board and came up with the new recommendations.

The report is for the Executive committee which is a totally different entity to the Economic overview scrutiny committee.

The Executive Committee influence Council policy. The Executive may recommend to the full council that the report of the 30th September be passed in its entirety.

The report recommends derestriction along the lines of what we have been seeing throughout the country. However I think there may be more surprises to this proposal than we probably imagine, so don't think it is a foregone conclusion.

http://www.woking.gov.uk/wbc/meetings/forthcoming

It must be remembered that the Executive were in favour of derestriction and competition back in 2003.

The Council's Executive is made up of seven Councillors and meets twelve times a year. In May of each year, the Council elects the Leader of the Executive and appoints six Councillors to the Executive. Its meetings normally take place at 7.00 pm on a Thursday and are held in the Council Chamber of the Civic Offices.

The Executive is accountable for decision-making within the Council's overall policies and budget framework and recommends to the Council on new policies and decisions outside its remit, ensuring the consistent application of corporate standards.

When major decisions are to be discussed or made, these are published in the Executive's Forward Plan of Key Decisions. All Meetings are open to the public to attend, except on the rare occasion when items of a personal or confidential matter are due to be considered.

Chairman: Councillor Jim Armitage

cllrjim.armitage@woking.gov.uk

Vice Chairman: Councillor John Kingsbury

cllrjohn.kingsbury@woking.gov.uk

Councillor Peter Ankers

cllrpeter.ankers@woking.gov.uk

Councillor David Bittleston

cllrdavid.bittleston@woking.gov.uk

Councillor Mrs Mehala Gosling

cllrmehala.gosling@woking.gov.uk

Councillor James Palmer

cllrjames.palmer@woking.gov.uk

Councillor Mrs Valerie Tinney

cllrvalerie.tinney@woking.gov.uk

There is a meeting of the ECONOMIC OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE Tomorrow Monday 6th September, It will have before them an update from the Taxi Working group. Perhaps that should give you a little more information as to the present situation.

There is also a meeting of the Licencing committee on 12th October.

Best Wishes

JD

Mr. Peter Kavanagh is a TGWU Cab Section Officer. It seems one of his main functions is to organise demonstrations against unpopular decisions that effect his members, whether such decisions are democratic or otherwise. He has a certain charisma that endears him to people of his own ilk, such as other Trade union members.

Because of his opposition to the OFT report he has become somewhat of a celebrity in the Taxi and Private hire trade.

Mr. Kavanagh represented members of TGWU at the transport select Committee hearing earlier this year.

Mr. Kavanagh sometimes has a propensity to be economical with the truth, as he ably demonstrated at the Select committee hearing.

When the Government published their response to the OFT report in 2004 Mr. Kavanagh was Euphoric in claiming they, meaning us, had won a famous victory. He proclaimed that Taxi policy is best left to local councils. A comment that will forever come back to haunt him

The problem is that Mr. Kavanagh doesn't really believe that Taxi policy should be left to local councils. What Mr Kavanagh believes is that leaving Taxi policy in the hands of local councillors is just fine as long as those councillors march to the tune of the TGWU cab section.

Every time a Council exercises its right to de limit or increase numbers substantially Mr. Kavanagh mobilises his Barmy Army to demonstrate against these democratic council decisions.

Mr. Kavanagh has a perverse way of demonstrating his own stated belief that a council knows best. Mr. Kavanagh is a Protectionist when it suits him and when it doesn't suit him he is of the opinion that an open market is best.

Mr Kavanagh was so Euphoric at the Governments response to the Oft report that he made the classic mistake of miscalculating the hidden content of what the Government was actually saying. He wasn’t alone in miscalculating the response either because there were many others in the same boat.

If you go back and read the thread appertaining to the Oft report you will see my response as being one of caution. I said at the time that the Government response had raised the bar substantially for councils and that in future it would be more difficult for them to make a case for restricting numbers. I read the Government response several times before I wrote my opinion on it, and I came to a vastly different conclusion to that of Mr. Kavanagh.

I think at some stage the content of the Governments response finally got through to MR Kavanagh, the Euphoria has now died down and a state of reality has set in.

If the case in Devon goes ahead and the applicant does his home work, I expect you might see a larger dose of reality hit Mr Kavanagh.

So the simple answer to your question is this, normally where there is a dispute involving TGWU Taxi Trade members Mr Kavanagh will be there organising some type of opposition or demonstration. The purpose of which is to get the undesirable decision overturned.

That’s it in a nutshell. If you are a TGWU member or indeed any Trade Union member you may well agree with Mr Kavanagh’s approach. I’m not saying he’s wrong or he’s right, just giving you a little insight in the man himself.

Best wishes

JD

He is the T&G's mouthpiece who announced to the world that OFT was KO'D. http://www.brighton-taxi.org.uk/ctnCover.htm

Unfortunatley for him (but not those non plate-holders in Woking, Solihull, Guildford, Hastings, Slough, Amber Valley, Chelmsford, Exeter, Selby, Stratford upon Avon, North Tyneside, Wycombe, and no-doubt many more to come), he got it so very wrong.

He is also the person who said that councils should be the ones to decide to restrict or not. Well that was until they started to de-restrict, and then he said it shouldn't down to political bias.

In short, he makes what could be a great benefit to the taxi/PH trade, look like a bunch of buffoons.

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IDFIMH

Three pdf reports regarding the Taxi working group of woking council, the first is the most recently updated report. A final report is to be presented to the Executive on the 30th of September after consultation with the local Taxi trade. The Minutes of Mondays meeting have not yet been posted on the woking website.

The second is a draft report which contains a list of all the councils who still retain numbers but this is outdated because it includes some councils that have de restricted or are about to de restrict. See if you can spot which ones.

http://www.woking.gov.uk/papers/reports ... 5.0001.pdf

http://www.woking.gov.uk/papers/reports ... 6.0005.pdf

http://www.woking.gov.uk/papers/reports ... D.0008.pdf

Best wishes.

JD

The list of councils was sort of debated on http://www.taxi-driver.co.uk/phpBB2/vie ... 47&start=0

Out of the 144 listed, in my hopeful opinion a third are already delimited, or will be by next April, and another third will be by April 2006.

As for the rest, well in time they will go, of that there is no-doubt.

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IDFIMH

I’ve numbered the regulated councils from the list compiled in 2001. Obviously this list is now out of date. It is surprising however that councils such as Woking still refer to this 2001 list without amending it.

There are 141 Authorities in this list, with your help we can get it down to the correct figure. Just give the number thats de restricted if anyone would like to help.

1 Adur, 2 Amber valley, 3 Ashford, 4 Aylesbury Dale, 5 Babergh, 6 Barnsley, 7 Barrow in Furness, 8 Basildon, 9 Basingstoke, 10 Bassetlaw, 11 Bath and North East Somerset ua, 12 Bedford, 13 Blackburn Darwen ua, 14 Blackpool ua, 15 Blyth Valley, 16 Bournemouth ua, 17 Bradford, 18 Braintree, 19 Brighton and Hove ua, 20 Burnley, 21 Calderdale, 22 Cardiff, 23 Carrick, 24 Castle Point, 25 Chelmsford, 26 Cherwell, 27 Chester, 28 Chester le street, 29 Chorley, 30 Colchester, 31 Congleton, 32 Conwy, 33 Copeland, 34 Corby, 36 Crawley, 37 Denbighshire, 38 Dover, 39 Durham, 40 Easington, 41 East Lindsey, 42 East Northants, 43 East Riding, 44 Eastbourne, 45 Eastleigh, 46 Ellesmere port, 47 Exeter, 48 Fylde, 49 Gosport, 50 Great Yarmouth, 51 Guildford, 52 Gwynedd, 53 Halton ua, 54 Harlow, 55 Harrogate, 56 Hastings, 57 Havant, 58 High Peak, 59 Huntingdonshire, 60 Hyndburn, 61 Ipswich, 62 Kerrier, 63 Kettering, 64 Kings Lynn, 65 Kingston upon Hull, 66 Kirklees, 67 Knowsley, 68 Lancaster, 69 Leeds, 70 Leicester ua, 71 Lincoln, 72 Liverpool, 73 Luton ua, 74 Maidstone, 75 Manchester, 76 Merthyr Tydfil, 77 Middlesbrough ua, 78 Mole Valley, 79 New Forest, 80 Newcastle on Tyne, 77 Newcastle under Lyme, 78 North East Lincolnshire ua, 79 Nottingham ua, 80 Oldham, 81 Oxford, 82 Pendle, 83 Penwith, 84 Plymouth ua, 85 Poole ua, 86 Portsmouth ua, 87 Preston, 88 Reading ua, 89 Reigate and Banstead, 90 Restormal, 91 Ribble Valley, 92 Richmondshire, 93 Rochdale, 94 Rotherham, 95 Rugby, 96 Salford, 97 Scarborough, 98 Sefton, 99 Selby, 100 Slough ua, 101 Solihull, 102 South Bedfordshire, 103 South Ribble, 104 South Tyneside, 105 Southampton ua, 106 Southend on sea ua, 107 St Edmundsbury, 108 St Helens, 109 Stevenage, 110 Stockport, 111 Stoke on Trent ua, 112 Stratford upon Avon, 113 Sunderland, 114 Swindon ua, 115 Tameside, 116 Teignbridge, 117 Test Valley, 118 Thanet, 119 Thurrock ua, 120 Torbay ua, 121 Torfaen, 122 Torridge, 123 Trafford, 124 Tunbridge wells, 125 Wakefield, 126 Walsall, 127 Wansbeck, 128 Warrington ua, 129 Watford, 130 West Somerset, 131 Weymouth, 132 Wigan, 133 Windsor and Maidenhead ua, 134 Woking, 135 Wolverhampton, 136 Worthing, 137 Wrexham, 138 Wycombe, 139 Wyre, 140 Wyre Forest, 141 York ua.


Best wishes

JD

There are a few numbered mistakes in that previous post so I amended it.

I’ve numbered the regulated councils from the list compiled in 2001. Obviously this list is now out of date. It is surprising however that councils such as Woking still refer to this 2001 list without amending it.

There are 145 Authorities in this list, with your help we can get it down to the correct figure.

1 Adur, 2 Amber valley, 3 Ashford, 4 Aylesbury Dale, 5 Babergh, 6 Barnsley, 7 Barrow in Furness, 8 Basildon, 9 Basingstoke, 10 Bassetlaw, 11 Bath and North East Somerset ua, 12 Bedford, 13 Blackburn Darwen ua, 14 Blackpool ua, 15 Blyth Valley, 16 Bournemouth ua, 17 Bradford, 18 Braintree, 19 Brighton and Hove ua, 20 Burnley, 21 Calderdale, 22 Cardiff, 23 Carrick, 24 Castle Point, 25 Chelmsford, 26 Cherwell, 27 Chester, 28 Chester le street, 29 Chorley, 30 Colchester, 31 Congleton, 32 Conwy, 33 Copeland, 34 Corby, 36 Crawley, 37 Denbighshire, 38 Dover, 39 Durham, 40 Easington, 41 East Lindsey, 42 East Northants, 43 East Riding, 44 Eastbourne, 45 Eastleigh, 46 Ellesmere port, 47 Exeter, 48 Fylde, 49 Gosport, 50 Great Yarmouth, 51 Guildford, 52 Gwynedd, 53 Halton ua, 54 Harlow, 55 Harrogate, 56 Hastings, 57 Havant, 58 High Peak, 59 Huntingdonshire, 60 Hyndburn, 61 Ipswich, 62 Kerrier, 63 Kettering, 64 Kings Lynn, 65 Kingston upon Hull, 66 Kirklees, 67 Knowsley, 68 Lancaster, 69 Leeds, 70 Leicester ua, 71 Lincoln, 72 Liverpool, 73 Luton ua, 74 Maidstone, 75 Manchester, 76 Merthyr Tydfil, 77 Middlesbrough ua, 78 Mole Valley, 79 New Forest, 80 Newcastle on Tyne, 81 Newcastle under Lyme, 82 North East Lincolnshire ua, 83 Nottingham ua, 84 Oldham, 85 Oxford, 86 Pendle, 87 Penwith, 88 Plymouth ua, 89 Poole ua, 90 Portsmouth ua, 91 Preston, 92 Reading ua, 93 Reigate and Banstead, 94 Restormal, 95 Ribble Valley, 96 Richmondshire, 97 Rochdale, 98 Rotherham, 99 Rugby, 100 Salford, 101 Scarborough, 102 Sefton, 103 Selby, 104 Slough ua, 105 Solihull, 106 South Bedfordshire, 107 South Ribble, 108 South Tyneside, 109 Southampton ua, 110 Southend on sea ua, 111 St Edmundsbury, 112 St Helens, 113 Stevenage, 114 Stockport, 115 Stoke on Trent ua, 116 Stratford upon Avon, 117 Sunderland, 118 Swindon ua, 119 Tameside, 120 Teignbridge, 121 Test Valley, 122 Thanet, 123 Thurrock ua, 124 Torbay ua, 125 Torfaen, 126 Torridge, 127 Trafford, 128 Tunbridge wells, 129 Wakefield, 130 Walsall, 131 Wansbeck, 132 Warrington ua, 133 Watford, 134 West Somerset, 135 Weymouth, 136 Wigan, 137 Windsor and Maidenhead ua, 138 Woking, 139 Wolverhampton, 140 Worthing, 141 Wrexham, 142 Wycombe, 143 Wyre, 144 Wyre Forest, 145 York ua.

Best wishes

JD