Taxi Driver Online

now you are getting tired

your posts dont make sense anymore!

What do you mean?

_________________
Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

One must consider, if those applying for a license have actually had their application refused? Until such time they have been refused they are not in a position to go court, unless of course they have been waiting an extremely long time for the decision.

If they haven't been refused they must get their solicitor to ask the council for a speedy determination of their application. There are ways of going about this which have already been discussed in this forum.

If the council eventualy refuse the licenses then those applicants concerned can naturaly appeal. The council will then have to put a case forward as to why they refused the licenses when they haven't measured demand? Probably the only way out for the council is to write to each applicant and inform them that they are considering their application but in order to measure demand for Taxis they must undertake a survey. Once the survey is complete the council will then be in a better position to consider each application.

That I'm afraid, is probably the only way out for the council. If they wish to retain a numbers policy, I suspect that is the route they will take.

Best wishes

JD

I'm not to sure they would even have to do that.

Cannock Chase-v-Alldritt is an interesting case. There the judge said asking an applicant to have insurance and a motor before his application was considered, was an onerous condition.

In other words it was unfair to expect someone to pay £10-20,000 on a motor, and £1000+ to insure the thing, if he wasn't going to be allowed to use it.

So maybe the council are being onerous by asking people to stump up £700 for no good reason.

_________________
IDFIMH

Valid points but a study of demand carried out some months later can’t replicate the conditions at the time of application and Edinburgh council have only a maximum period of 6 months to decide one way or the other.

What council would deny the applicants their license plates and face legal action claiming there is ‘no significant unmet demand’ on one hand and commission a study that proves that there is a significant unmet demand on the other.



They say it is not over till the fat lady sings? Well I think she is warming up her tonsils on this one.

yes my argument exactly, think JD is going on english law the transport act for 85 is for scotland as well, bizarely it seems to read differently up there

english case law deams councils have a chance to do surveys in response to applications.

dunno what they say in Scotland.

The Coyle case (ie the forerunner of the Dundee one) found against Glasgow on the basis of not having assessed demand.

Yet as far as I know the number of taxis has remained static since before the case.

Couldn't quite work that one out.

_________________
Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

I believe that's what's being considered in the Dundee appeal, and I hope it is accepted by the court, and the appeal chucked out.

Alas too many in my experience. The only time when councils back down is when the are fronted by those with money. When just one mush applies, the council know that it could cost tens of thousands if it goes to the appeal court.

In some cases the mush would be better off buying a plate.

However when firms go for it, which could be happening now for all we know, then councils do back down.

_________________
IDFIMH

Wasn't Coyle (too lasy to look it up) a case were he forgot to re-license? Thus when he won his appeal, it simply took the numbers back up to were they where.

_________________
IDFIMH

I will be the first to admit that I am not familiar with the relevant Scottish legislation and in particular the six-month rule which seems to apply when applying for a license.

Perhaps it first must be established if anyone has actually applied for a hackney carriage license in Edinburgh? Do we know for sure that they have? Assuming they have, it would appear that Edinburgh council have six months to make a decision or the applicant gets his license by default.

However, for the time being let's say that the council refuses all applications? We then have an appeal situation. The applicants have to make a decision on whether or not to go to court. One would have thought that the council no doubt would have already considered the legal option when they refused the licenses.

I understand someone mentioned that Edinburgh had a survey just over three years ago, would that be correct? If that is the case perhaps Edinburgh might go to court hoping that the survey is still current.

Navigating through different legal systems is no doubt a hazardous occupation, especially when like me you don't have a clue as to the law appertaining to the particular legal system in question. For instance in respect to appeals and Judicial review with regard to licensing, In England and Wales a Judicial review will consider the facts from when the council decision was made, much similar to the suggestion you made with regard to the six month rule. However a crown court would consider the facts from the date the case is actually heard in the crown court.

Therefore if a Council has not had a survey and is unsure of unmet demand at the time a license is refused, then a judicial review would be the preferred option, especially if the council planned on undertaking a survey.

On the other hand, if a council is unsure of unmet demand at the time of an application it can defer the application until such time it has measured demand. The time element must not be unduly long.

After the completion of the survey the council would then be in a position to grant or deny the applicant a license. If it were a case of refusal the applicant would have no other option but to appeal to the crown court.

The crown court would only consider the evidence at that particular time and not when the applicant first applied.

The Six-month law in Scotland is very interesting but the first I knew of it was when a similar case was reported on here the other day. Perhaps the Scottish judiciary has scope to incorporate the English precedent, which gives a council time to inform itself on the level of demand that exists. We shall have to wait and see?

Best wishes

JD