Taxi Driver Online

Middlesbrough Council pledge over taxi trade

A PLEDGE that Middlesbrough Council will continue to deal impartially with the taxi trade in the town has been made by the borough’s mayor Ray Mallon. It comes after the council won a court case brought against its taxi licensing service by the town’s biggest taxi operator Boro Taxis.

Boro Taxis’ company secretary and director Christine Bell said today the company was astonished the mayor had made a statement which they believed was disingenuous. Boro Taxis were due to issue a full statement today.

Boro Taxis had appealed against the prosecution of one its drivers for parking on a rank reserved for Hackney carriages. The case also involved an appeal against the company’s licence conditions which are drawn up by the council.

At a three-day hearing last month at Teesside Magistrates’ Court, Judge John Foster heard a number of allegations over the council’s handling of the town’s taxi trade. It was claimed the licensing section favoured the Hackney Carriage Association to the detriment of Boro Taxis - something the council has always denied.

Yesterday Judge Foster upheld the prosecution of Boro Taxis driver Amjed Rashid as well as the conditions of Boro Taxis’ licence, with the exception of one amendment. Mr Rashid was fined £150 and ordered to pay £350 costs.

Judge Foster said the council was obliged to manage the town’s taxi operators in a way that ensured both public safety and effective traffic management. The court heard how, on March 3 last year, Mr Rashid was seen by a licensing officer parking in a Hackney cab rank in Wilson Street while waiting to pick up a fare.

He was asked to move, but refused to do so after speaking to Boro Taxis owner Mohammed Bashir. An offer to deal with the matter by way of a caution was also refused.

Rejecting Boro Taxis’ application to have the case stayed as an abuse of process, the judge said: “Every other avenue open to the council had been explored with the defendant. “It is my view the council’s officers sought to be fair with Mr Rashid throughout proceedings.”

The judge rejected claims the council adopted a “prejudicial attitude” towards Boro Taxis or other private hire operators. Judge Foster said the two licensing officers had demonstrated “an even-handed and fair approach”. “There is absolutely no evidence before this court of any racial prejudice on the part of the local authority,” he said.

Boro Taxis now faces a costs bill running into tens of thousands of pounds.

Mr Mallon said today: “The council and its officers have attempted to act impartially at all times - we did all we could to resolve these matters but Boro Taxis wouldn’t listen and brought these proceedings which were completely unnecessary.

“To suggest that the council was individually or collectively racist is absolutely outrageous - that was a scurrilous tactic which has been rightly dismissed by the judge. “I hope Boro Taxis will now accept the court’s judgment and draw a clear line under the matter.”

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IDFIMH

So "boro taxi's" are not TAXI'S, but Private Hire?

And that therefore a vehicle other than a hackney carriage was stopped on a taxi rank, and the driver was prosecuted?

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Former taxi driver

Its an odd story.

Middlesbrough Borough Council licencing committee decide to allow Boro Taxis to open an office in the centre of the pub district- to be fair, I am not 100% certain that the licencing officers were happy about this..

Whats worse is the office is on a main street, right outside there is a Taxi Rank.

The chaps at Boro Taxis decided that they should have space to park one or two of their cars (PH) and have been trying to get the council to move/change the taxi rank, of course the hacks are totally up in arms about this, and again to be fair the council seem to be on the side of the hacks (for a change)

Seems Bash (Boro Taxis owner) decided to test the council and lost.

He has done it before and will do it again, this case will be applealed; nothing so certain, as the owner of Boro taxis seems to think that because his company is so big, he should be above the law.


Local talk from those in the know are saying the councils costs that he has to pay is £38k.

Which would indicate his costs to be around the £50k mark.

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IDFIMH

aint boro taxis one of the ones mr fiddler fronts for?

CC

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

Boro Taxis defend Middlesbrough Council battle

MIDDLESBROUGH’S biggest taxi firm has defended its position in fighting Middlesbrough Council in court.

This week Boro Taxis appealed against the prosecution of one its drivers for parking on a rank reserved for hackney carriages. The case also involved an appeal against the company’s licence conditions which are drawn up by the council.

Judge John Foster upheld the prosecution of Boro Taxis driver Amjed Rashid over parking in a rank as well as the conditions of Boro Taxis’ licence, with the exception of one amendment.

Boro Taxis said today that over the past two years it had made numerous complaints to the council.

The company said: “Numerous apologies, an offer of a financial remedy have been received from the council and an independent investigating officer has stated ‘that from the evidence available it is not surprising that Boro Taxis thought there was a conspiracy against them’.”

Boro Taxis said it did not take court action lightly and refuted the assertion by Mayor Ray Mallon it would not listen.

“We have tried all methods of mediation with the council which they abruptly halted. We believed the prosecution brought against one of our drivers was unfair.

“We agree that court action should not have been necessary. As the driver had an impeccable record the council did have the option to refer him to the licensing committee.

“We believed the conditions attached to our operators’ licence were unfair and unworkable and despite drawing this to the council’s attention they informed us that if we breached those conditions action would be taken. We were left with no alternative but to appeal.

“We were pleased to note the judge amended a condition which we believe goes some way to address the council’s imbalance which we believe favours the hackney carriage trade and now ensures a fairer playing field for all,” said Boro Taxis.

It said it was considering an appeal but that might not be necessary if the council implemented changes recommended by independent consultants.

Boro Taxis said it was astonished the mayor had alleged it suggested racial prejudice. They said: “We instructed our solicitor to make it clear to the court this was not part of our case and he did so.”

Mr Mallon said today strenuous efforts, including mediation, had been made to resolve the differences between Boro Taxis and the council.

He said the firm was well aware he disagreed with its stance on a number of issues, most notably the relationship between Boro Taxis and the Hackney Carriage Association.

Mr Mallon said: “This was an entirely unnecessary court case which we did everything in our power to avoid.”


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