Taxi Driver Online

Shepway's current licencing fees are £266 for the vehicle and £61 for the operator, total £327. How does this compare to other areas?

Any suggestion what questions to ask under the Freedom of Information Act justifying such increases?

We have 2 compliance checks a year for that price, a full time licencing manager who does all the other licencing as well, and a couple of job share ladies in the office to deal with the paperwork. Very little enforcement...

So why the huge discrepancy in fees set by councils? to give examples of what a huge differences there are in fees set all over the country. But Operator licences run in three different ways:-

• Single fee (one year) – lowest £32 Waveney - highest Wolverhampton £785
• Fee per vehicle, low Hull - £9 per vehicle(+£56 flat fee)– high Ashfield £123 per each vehicle.
• Rising scale low - Brentwood £75 for one vehicle for 5 years rising to £650 for 5 vehicles or over for five years – high Reading £248 for one vehicle for one year rising to £5,240 at 60 vehicles plus £200 per vehicle thereafter for one year.
Remember that it would appear that councils can only charge for the grant of the licence and the law allows under section 55 for operators to have a five-year licence as in Brentwood. Just think of the savings in council time and effort they could make if they just charged for one piece of paper every five years.

If we go to driver licences, here we stick to renewals because of the huge number of councils that have different and complicated ways of granting a licence: – CRB, medical, Knowledge, BTEC, DSA driving test, etc then we get a level playing field that we can compare:-

• lowest – Carmarthenshire £33 highest Eastbourne £299 (however if you go to get a licence on the Isle of Man it will rip you off £15 for a three-year licence!
Remember that with drivers licences they can only charge for issue and nothing else. Furthermore the law permits drivers to have a three-year licence. As far as im aware only Mid Sussex no longer issues a one-year licence, it’s a three-year licence only. Just think of the savings in council time and effort they could make if they just charged for one piece of paper every three years.

Finally, vehicle licences, and here remember councils can charge for “control and supervision” so as we have never seen a vehicle in court or in the Licensing Committee room this should be a level playing field shouldn’t it?:-

• Vehicle lowest – Uttlesford £70 - highest Chorley £462
To be honest Uttlesford fees would be appreciated by all of us - Driver £40 Operator £60 Vehicle £70 and nothing else.

I'm not sure why you are asking this? Have they just increased it? If not your a little late in asking the question. But here is something to think about.
although a council has a statutory power to levy a fee this does not give it an absolutely free hand in relation to the scale of the fee that is levied.the impact of any increase upon the livelihood of those affected has to be taken into account,as does the scale of the increase.CONSULTATION must take place with interested parties,whether this is a statutory requirement or not, and results of that consultation must be considered by the council before the decision is made.it is important that any consultation is done fairly and the results considered properly by the council.ANY suggestion that the cosultation is a sham would be grounds for an application for leave to seek a judicial review of the final decision.
the judge in kelly v liverpool said although s53 contains no requirement for consultation, a local authority would be ill-advised not to embark upon some element of consultation with those persons who would be affected by an increase in fees (eg the drivers of BOTH hackney carriages and private hire vehicles).

It is only 1 year here.

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Grandad,

Same in the Borders we have asked for a 3 year one but they wont do it

our are considering it.

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Grandad,

I thought you only had hackneys.

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IDFIMH

Sorry, I only have p/h!! Like I said in another thread, no point doing hackney knowledge for the area that covers Folkestone as I don't intend to work there, it's 15 miles away and irrelevant to Life on Marsh. (cue David Bowie)

Would also involve hills - somewhat lacking on Romney Marsh - perhaps "Hill Starts" are not for you.

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Chris The Fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdlyi5mc ... re=related

I get air sickness when I go above sea level...