Sussex wrote:
Taxi drivers to consider legal action over new fees
Frustrated taxi drivers may mount a legal challenge against a raft of "unfair" new council rules and fees. The newly-formed Derbyshire Dales Taxi Operators and Owners Association claimed Derbyshire Dales District Council was refusing to meet to discuss the new taxi regime.
The council's rules introduced four new charges, doubled some existing fees and demanded all new taxis to be less than three years old. Interim association chairman Fred Garside, from Crossdales Taxis in Wirksworth, said: "The council has sidestepped all our overtures to have a meeting.
"We are frustrated and have not ruled out taking them to court on this matter as we find a lot of it unfair. "I have spoken to a lawyer and, as far as he's concerned, what they're doing isn't legal."
The district council wants to reduce the number of hackney carriage licenses from 96 to 30, following recommendations by an independent consultancy firm.
Mr Garside said: "They are charging us £35 annually for the next three years for this survey, which we didn't even ask for." He added: "I've just been down to make a query about the new rules and nobody seems to know what's going on."
A district council spokeswoman admitted drivers were being charged for the consultants' report and that there had been problems with the new regime.
She said: "The view was taken that as this report was necessary to improve the way the district council regulates the taxi industry, then the costs should fall on that industry rather than on taxpayers more generally."
She added: "There have been some initial difficulties but these have been resolved in consultation with the local taxi trade."
There's nothing in the Derbyshire Dales but fields fields and more fields. There's no nightclubs no mainline station no big shopping Centers basically there's nothing.
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