Taxi Driver Online

[b]Anyone know about the new challenge for Taxi License Plates at Edinburgh Council?

Have a look at 'Fastblacks' on the web, and then look under 'drivers section' , there is a lively forum there covering all aspects of the Edinburgh trade.

There's a scribe on there called Jim Taylor, he's good, but have a look at his postings and see if it reminds you of anyone on here?!

just had a look he wrote some poems

is it Paddington Bill?

by the way whaT do you mean by good?

ABOUT AS MUCH USE AS A CHOCOLATE FIREGUARD.

No I give up, give us a clue.

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IDFIMH

What's the SP in Edinburgh and have you any idea on what grounds the challenge is based?

Best wishes

JD

By all accounts someone or some people have applied for 20 plates. I suppose it all depends on when they last surveyed.

If it was more than two years, and the Dundee decision is up-held, then one wonders what defence the council would have.

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IDFIMH

Don't know exactly when the survey was, but it was being considered in March 2002:

City leaders have delayed plans to put an extra 50 taxis on the streets of Edinburgh, ignoring the advice of independent consultants.

The council had been advised to grant 49 more taxi licences on the grounds there was significant unmet demand for black cabs. But it decided against the move on the grounds that councillors believed the Capital is already well served.

A number of major taxi firms had lobbied against new licences, saying there was no need for them and any more would lead to too many cabs chasing too little work

Of course, not long before that they were proposing to water down the knowledge and create a head hunting team to attract more drivers into the trade!!!

I think the 'shortage' of drivers was quantified at 300, and this figure may have come from our friend the dragon-slayer(not!) Mr Greenhalgh.

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

Pity someone wouldn't challenge the corporate license scam they have up there, which I looked into a couple of years ago.

The Scottish legislation doesn't allow transfers, so there were no premium as per Liverpool, Halifax etc.

So some lawyers dreamt up this idea, which was remarkably simple - the seller gives up the plate, and the council issues a new one in the name of the buyer. Good that!

Well it might have been in some cases, but it was a bit more complex than that - instead they set up some kind of company or partership for the new license - which perhaps not only made the process look less blatantly unfair, but also ensured that even in future the license could be transferred without requiring another swap.

Of course, I've rambled on about this before, but it seems that there could be a basis for a legal challenge, since those waiting for a plate may have a 'legitimate expectation' that they aren't queue-jumped in this way. But this may depend on whether a waiting list is kept - if there's no list then there can't be an LE, if there is then there can be. So I believe some LAs who operate these scams have simply gotten rid of waiting lists to ensure they can't be challenged on the basis of a LE, but I wonder how a court would view this if challenged - of course the whole thing is just a big scam, and it seems further unfair if LAs can just abolish a waiting list to get round any challenge.

Then of course there's our old friend the abuse of a dominant position under EU law, which would be an interesting basis for challenge anywhere, but particularly in the likes of Edinburgh.

But the challenge is more likely to be just on the usual basis

Incidentally, it's worth recalling that when the review of the legislation in Scotland was announced, the 'Task Group' managed to not even mention restricted numbers, never mind the corporate licenses.

Their recently issued follow up document does mention the issue, but unsurprisingly sweeps it all under the carpet.

It even proposes fully legalising transfers. I'm surprised people like Jim Taylor have never mentioned this on the Fastblacks forum, since he clearly doesn't like the likes of Mr Greenhalgh making a crust as an intermediary in the whole scam, which wouldn't be necessary if the transfers were legalised.

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

Has anyone ever bothered asking the EU if they are interested in such a localised taxi issue?

Captain cab

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

I don't think the locality is really an issue. Taxis quotas is a national issue, and I suspect the end of them could well be via the EU.

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IDFIMH

It doesn't matter if they are interested, no more than if the Govt is interested if someone takes their LA to court under UK law.

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

the point I make is that would they intervene

Captain cab

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Edinburgh City Council can only deny a license plate on the bases that there is no significant unmet demand.
The only trouble is they haven’t had a survey for nearly 4 years, the PHV have doubled in the last five (nearly 800 vehicle licenses) Taxi license plates have jumped from £20,000 to nearly £40,000

I think it is fare to say under the circumstance the challenge would only need an application fee of £700 to force the issue. I don’t think Edinburgh City Council would be in a rush to get into court!

A sheriff would probably have a seizure being confronted by such a challenge bearing in mind Sheriff Davidson in Dundee already granted 71 license plates on the bases that Dundee Council had erred in law by relying on out of date policies and studies.

Answerd my own question, perhaps?

Well I don't know el Capitano.

I know, for example, that UK Govt effectively treats LAs like you or I - if we don't take legal action when they've ignored the law then they certainly won't intervene for us.

The EU may be different, but I honestly don't know.

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

It's amazing that they haven't surveyed recently, particularly given the obvious enthusiasm of ECC in the past to keep things restricted.

I suspect there's more to this than meets the eye, but time will tell.

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