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York cabbie’s battle over taxi rules
A TAXI driver is taking City of York Council to court over its plans to make all the hackney carriages black and take older taxis off the road.
Tom Browne, who drives a red, W-reg VW Caravelle, is challenging new licensing conditions which impose a standard livery on all cabs and insist that no taxi should be more than eight years old.
The rules, due to come into force next June, are part of a drive to tackle pollution by reducing vehicle emissions and also to ensure that hackney carriages – which can be hailed by potential passengers – are clearly recognised by tourists, residents and police.
The scheme will be extended later by a ban on private hire cars being painted black, with existing black vehicles having to be resprayed a different colour.
Mr Browne yesterday declined to comment why he is taking action against the council, saying it wasn’t his aim to gain publicity and his arguments would be aired publicly when they are considered by York magistrates next week.
But the black taxi proposals met with a furious reaction when they were first announced last year, with hackney carriage drivers claiming they would be put out of business and passengers would end up paying higher fares.
Alan Rowley, secretary of York Taxi Association, who was unavailable for comment yesterday, warned last year: “This is going to have a major, major impact on hackney cab drivers in York. It’s going to be huge financially.
“There are cars out there that are seven or eight years old that are perfectly serviceable, but for somebody to get rid of one of those will have major financial implications for that person.”
Dick Haswell, the council’s head of licensing and regulation, declined to comment on Mr Browne’s legal challenge, but said that, speaking generally, all taxis would have to comply with Euro III standards by next June.
He said with taxis being driven around York all day long, the insistence on newer cabs would help the council in its efforts to reduce pollution levels in York, and having all hackney carriages painted black would help the public know which vehicles they could hail for a ride.
He pointed out that other cities such as London, Newcastle and Leeds already had a standard livery.
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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin
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