grandad wrote:
I have sent the following email to the entire committee and the reserve Councillors as well.
Dear Councillor,
My name is Peter Faulkner and I am the acting Chair of the Melton Mowbray Taxi Drivers Association. The association represents the views of 43 Hackney drivers within the Borough.
The reason for writing to you direct ahead of tonight's REEA committee meeting is to forward to you the full document produced by the association in response to the draft policy consultation because we feel that some very important issues have been ignored or side stepped by the Licensing department in submitting their recommendations due to be adopted at tonight's meeting.
The main points are.
1, Age limits. Best practice guidelines state that arbitrary age limits should not be set, the condition of the vehicle should be the main factor.
2, Drivers badges. Best practice guidelines state that a 3 year badge should be issued and not a 1 year badge.
3, Drivers medicals. Why are Hackney and Private hire drivers subjected to medicals every 3 years when bus and lorry drivers are checked every 5 years.
4, DBS checks. A DBS check from any authorized body along with the annual updates should be accepted by the Council now.
5, Penalty Points System. The system as published is basically a shambles with many of the "offenses" being covered by the police, others make no sense and there is no legal requirement for other information to be kept.
In summary, the association would ask the committee to reject the policy in it's current form and ask the Licensing team to look again at the policy, perhaps with more input from the trade.
Regards,
The committee did not accept that the penalty point system was a shambles and approved it. I cant wait to get 3 points for failure to carry appropriate fire extinguisher when the policy does not state what fire extinguisher must be carried. Or failure to carry an approved first aid kit when the policy does not say what is approved.
You will get 6 points for "failure to submit a license renewal application including documents and attendance at a vehicle inspection." What on earth is that about. If I don't want to submit a license renewal it means that I don't want a license for that vehicle.
