Taxi Driver Online

I don't think I will be on the Christmas card list this year.

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Grandad,
To support my charity text MAYORWALK to 70085 to donate £5

Well you should get at least 81 Xmas cards? And if they all give you a £10, this should go some way for your time and trouble? Good luck

I wouldn't hold your breath on that one grandad

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

I'm not.
But I would like to thank mancityfan and Sussex for their advice on the questions to ask, it has been very helpful.

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Grandad,
To support my charity text MAYORWALK to 70085 to donate £5

I agree - but tbh, I'm quite impressed by your own tenacity in this

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

Reply to the objections.
Your letters are founded on the assertion that the council has no ideas what costs are and are simply making a guess. This is not the case we have a clear understanding of the cost of theservice, which we have communicated to you in previous correspondence. I note you have not questioned or challenged these sums, or even enquired as to their derivation, so it is unclear how and why you believe them to be inaccurate.
In order to demonstrate the reasonableness of the charges and the breakdown of how costs are calculated I set out the financial background and the relevant parts of the licensing budget below.

Total cost of service £79,000

Total revenue from licence fees £19,000

The legislation requires us to recover 'aggregate costs' not simply the direct costs associated with an individual licence, and on that basis we consider that 'averaging out' costs across all licences is a reasonable approach. Given that the council issues approximately 180 Hackney carriage and Private hire licenses each year, a basic calculation shows that the average fee, in order to recover full costs would be approximately £438.

A meeting was held with the head of regulatory services, in accordance with with LGMP act 1976 section 70(5) to considier the objections received, and all other objections raised, in respect of Hackney carriage and Private hire vehicle fees and operators fees. At that meeting all objections were carefully considered and it was decided that none of the objections to the fees could be shown to either prove that the fees were unreasonable in accordance with cost recovery as provided for in the above legislation or provide information that was not available to the committee when the fees were set. Accordingly there is no basis on which the committee needs to reconsider its decision and therefore the fees should rise in accordance with the committee decision. The new fees will therefore come into force on 1st April 2013 as previously advertised.
There is no such requirement in legislation to hold a meeting to discuss objections to the proposed new drivers fees, however the objections were considered at the same meeting and a decision was made in line with that outlined above.

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Grandad,
To support my charity text MAYORWALK to 70085 to donate £5

So they know the total cost of the service - but they don't actually know the cost of the bit they charge you for - in other words you could be paying to subsidise another part of the licensing function?

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

I thought that section 70(5) stated that they SHALL set a new date not that they MAY set a new date or just continue with the original date.

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Grandad,
To support my charity text MAYORWALK to 70085 to donate £5

70 Fees for vehicle and operators’ licences

(1)Subject to the provisions of subsection (2) of this section, a district council may charge such fees for the grant of vehicle and operators’ licences as may be resolved by them from time to time and as may be sufficient in the aggregate to cover in whole or in part—

(a)the reasonable cost of the carrying out by or on behalf of the district council of inspections of hackney carriages and private hire vehicles for the purpose of determining whether any such licence should be granted or renewed;

(b)the reasonable cost of providing hackney carriage stands; and

(c)any reasonable administrative or other costs in connection with the foregoing and with the control and supervision of hackney carriages and private hire vehicles.

(2)The fees chargeable under this section shall not exceed—

(a)for the grant of a vehicle licence in respect of a hackney carriage, twenty-five pounds;

(b)for the grant of a vehicle licence in respect of a private hire vehicle, twenty-five pounds; and

(c)for the grant of an operator’s licence, twenty-five pounds per annum;
or, in any such case, such other sums as a district council may, subject to the following provisions of this section, from time to time determine.

(3)(a)If a district council determine that the maximum fees specified in subsection (2) of this section should be varied they shall publish in at least one local newspaper circulating in the district a notice setting out the variation proposed, drawing attention to the provisions of paragraph (b) of this subsection and specifying the period, which shall not be less than twenty-eight days from the date of the first publication of the notice, within which and the manner in which objections to the variation can be made.

(b)A copy of the notice referred to in paragraph (a) of this subsection shall for the period of twenty-eight days from the date of the first publication thereof be deposited at the offices of the council which published the notice and shall at all reasonable hours be open to public inspection without payment.

(4)If no objection to a variation is duly made within the period specified in the notice referred to in subsection (3) of this section, or if all objections so made are withdrawn, the variation shall come into operation on the date of the expiration of the period specified in the notice or the date of withdrawal of the objection or, if more than one, of the last objection, whichever date is the later.

(5)If objection is duly made as aforesaid and is not withdrawn, the district council shall set a further date, not later than two months after the first specified date, on which the variation shall come into force with or without modification as decided by the district council after consideration of the objections.

(6)A district council may remit the whole or part of any fee chargeable in pursuance of this section for the grant of a licence under section 48 or 55 of this Act in any case in which they think it appropriate to do so.

yep you're right

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

A meeting between civil servants is not what the act says.

Ask for the minutes of the meeting when councillors voted to delegate this process to pen pushers?

I feel this mob are a law to themselves, and epitomise everything that's wrong with the current fees process.

What council is it again?

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IDFIMH

Melton Borough Council.

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Grandad,
To support my charity text MAYORWALK to 70085 to donate £5

Looks like they think they can fob you of grandad? They have given you a summary and think that's all you need? You need a break down of every item and the relevant cost codes? I want you to ask them for the address of the local government ombudsman? I know you can find it yourself, but lets let them know you won't be a push over? You will then be able to tell the ombudsman your reasons for your objection? And he will request the information and look into the way your council is run? Lots of grief for them. You should say that the council have failed to follow the correct procedure when it decided to increase the taxi licence fees and charges?

Sussex is correct and do has he says and request a copy of the meeting? This is very important

The information of costs that you have supplied needs further investigation, please supply a breakdown of all costs associated to taxi licensing and all cost codes. We remind you that the council has to justify the costs charged into the Licensing account.

What data has the council assembled in relation to any 'best value' exercise covering the licence function it carries out?

While the fees charged for Driver licences are not subject to advertising and the statutory objection process I believe these must also be considered as the authority does not appear to maintain separate accounting records of the costs and income receivable for that activity.

I note the comments of James Button in TAXIS-Licensing Law and Practice

The ability of a council to recover licence fees in relation to Operators appears to be restricted to the flat fee of£25 provided in Section 70(2) c.

Therefore i believe that suspending the implementation of the proposed fees increases would be a reasonable course of action until the authority has carries out a review of the cost ‘drivers’ applied to the account including carrying out an objective analysis of the proportion of officer time allocated/charged to the taxi licensing account.