Taxi Driver Online

Scunthorpe taxi drivers win battle with North Lincolnshire Council over licence charges



LICENSING watchdogs on North Lincolnshire Council have backed down on a plan to increase licence fees for private hire taxi operators by more than four times the current charge.

The licensing committee met to consider increasing the present annual fee from £72 to £315.

At the same time the council wanted to introduce a new five-year licence at a cost of £1,015.

The increases were said to be necessary to cover the £142.54 cost to process an annual licence.

On top of that, an average of at least five hours at a cost of £35 an hour was spent on enforcement per operator.

In a report councillors were told: "The proposed fee has been set to ensure that the service can be delivered effectively and to ensure that it is not a burden on the council tax payers."

But objections were raised by the 120-strong Scunthorpe and District Taxi Association.

Spokesman Stuart Commander slammed the proposed price changes as "staggering" and expressed fears if they were implemented that taxi drivers could lose their jobs.

The association carried out its own survey which compared licence fees in neighbouring local authorities.

The annual fees ranged from £56 in Hull to £186 in West Lindsey.

Mr Commander told the committee: "The job is hard enough without these kind of costs being forced upon us."

He claimed taxi costs for tests, insurance, maintenance and badges were already "very high" and "ridiculous".

The licensing committee agreed to lower the proposed charges to £210 for a year and £1,015 for five years.

The proposals will now go out to consultation with the trade and the public before a final decision is taken.

After the meeting, committee chairman Councillor Keith Vickers said: "This demonstrates that we are a listening council. We received an objection from the Scunthorpe and District Taxi Association to our original proposals and we have listened to their concerns.

"Having taken everything into consideration, we now propose a much smaller increase.

"We trust this proposal will be acceptable to the private hire operators.

"We now need to consult further on the new proposals before making a final decision."


Read more: http://www.scunthorpetelegraph.co.uk/Li ... z3zcCPvhM9

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

The increases were said to be necessary to cover the £142.54 cost to process an annual licence.

how on earth can it cost that much to process a form and issue a badge

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

How can it cost more to process a 5 year license than a one year license?

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Grandad,

What a total and utter load of bollocks.



Enforcement charges aren't supposed to come out of Licensing fees are they?

I think some of them can now.

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Grandad,

THE NORMAL LESSON ORGANISED THEY HAD AN IMPACT on their own they would have been f6cked

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All posts by this contributor are made in a strictly personal capacity

I AM PROUD TO BE A CITIZEN NOBODY'S SUBJECT http://www.republic.org.u

F88K EM ALL WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

BOOZE BOOZE BOOZE

In Sefton we pay £140...for 12 months......but £30 of that goes into a ringfenced ac,to pay for new hackney stands...next year it will go up by 15%...but I am arguing that the increase must only be on a £110 of the fee.. vehicle licence...

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!