Taxi Driver Online

St Helens taxi drivers set to protest at 'Draconian' e-cig licensing conditions


Drivers are due to protest on Wednesday morningDrivers are due to protest on Wednesday morning

TAXI drivers are due to stage a town centre rally against what they claim are Draconian licensing conditions.

Private hire and Hackney cab drivers are expected to join forces and drive past St Helens Town Hall to underline their stance.

Drivers say their livelihood is being put at risk because of what they term a hardline approach.

Hackney cab driver Paul Rigby, from Rainhill, told the Star the protest drive on Wednesday morning was aimed at forcing a meeting with Town Hall chiefs.

The 45-year-old father-of-two said:“We are concerned at the way we are discriminated against by the licensing department and use of Draconian licensing conditions placed on drivers.

"This is our chance to prevent further conditions being forced upon us, without proper consultation first taking place.

“If a driver or a passenger is caught with an electronic cig in the cab we get punished under the smoke free regulations and fined £50 for breaking the law which we understand. Yet for a first offence we are put in front of the licensing committee and face being out off the road for one week.

“For a repeat offence a driver recently had his badge taken off him for four weeks. We’re all struggling and working longer hours for a lot less than we earned 10 years ago. Yet in Liverpool taxi drivers who are handed a £60 penalty get the fine reduced to £30 if paid promptly.”

Drivers are due to assemble behind the Zoo Bar for the protest run and travel along Westfield Street, past the Town Hall, around the bus station and back past the Town Hall to Bridge Street.

A St Helens Council spokesman said: “The Licensing Committee’s Code of Practice for Hackney carriage and private hire drivers in relation to smoking in their vehicles is quite clear.

“Smoking has been banned since July 2007, while the use of e-cigarettes – or anything that looks like a cigarette – was banned by the committee in April this year.

“E-cigarettes are obviously designed to look like tobacco cigarettes and it would be unfair to expect drivers to start checking exactly what their passengers were smoking if there was a dispute.

“It’s a clear and easy-to-understand policy that should make it easier to enforce the general ‘no smoking’ rule in taxis.

“Drivers who allow their passengers to smoke tobacco or e-cigarettes risk having their licence suspended.”

http://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/1071 ... onditions/

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

Numpty.
You can't be fined for "smoking" an e-cig.

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Well I'm glad he understands cos I'm f***ed if I do.

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IDFIMH

Do they fine council employees for using e-cigs in council vehicles or workplaces, or anyone else using them in enclosed spaces ? Do they remove the licence for a week from licenced premises and impose a fine if anyone uses an e-cig in them ? Or are they just discriminating against one section of society ?

They must be thick as pigshit

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Protest called off as a meeting has been arranged.

http://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/1071 ... ns/?ref=mr

Methinks someone with a pair of balls should go and represent the trade.

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IDFIMH

They won't get anywhere. Looks like the Council have made their minds up.

Both of the links above from the St Helens Star report that the main problem is e-cigs , its not . The protest drive was about the punishment received after the first time being caught smoking in a hackney/private hire (punishments at the moment for a first time smoking offence can range from 1 to 4 weeks ban from working)
Government smokefree legislation for St Helens was amended to include the following ( by the same council ) ( ) in January 2010 , cant copy and paste so heres the link to the council document.


http://moderngov.sthelens.gov.uk/(S(cjpaaumxxehxfr3ojuo2pkji))/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=1739

Does this look like a fag?

Could any of you pm me with advice please .

No need to send a PM. The answer is simple. If you don't smoke in the vehicle there will be no punishment. If drivers want to take the pi55 and break the law then expect the council to punish them. If they don't think the punishment is correct then take it to appeal.
If, as most people on here seem to agree, a council has no powers to suspend a licence, the appeal will be straight forward. However be prepared for the council to come to the conclusion that a suspension is not allowed they will go straight out for a revocation. Is that what the drivers want?

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Grandad,

The BBC has allowed vaping in its offices to try to maximise productivity.

Maybe this will help you.

http://www.nhs.uk/news/2013/04April/Pag ... oking.aspx

It's going to be hard.

The policy should never have been allowed to come in, in all honesty the trade messed up by allowing it to come in last year.

However you are where you are.

The non smoking act will never be used against you or your colleagues, but the licensing decision will. However I would be amazed if a court backed a council that suspended a driver for smoking a vaper cigarette.

So in short you have to get the trade organised, and make life very hard for those councillors that voted the decision in.

Get the unions involved, start mentioning the fact that Labour councillors are allowing working drivers to be put out of work for a non criminal offence.

You need to be smart, you need to be head strong, and you need to be in it for the long term.

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IDFIMH

The problem is that these drivers are not being suspended for using a vaper cigarrette. You need to read the post made yesterday by andycable where he states that the protest was about drivers being caught smoking cigarrettes and getting suspended.

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Grandad,

I understand that, that why I said they slipped up last year in relation to the new condition being adopted.

But to repeat myself they need to make life very hard for the councillors and officials that are making their life very hard.

It's going to be hard work, and TBH I'm not convince calling off that protest was a good thing.

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IDFIMH