Taxi Driver Online

Taxi child sex claims: South Ribble Council's boss quits



The leader of a council at the centre of claims children were sexually exploited by taxi drivers has resigned.

Last month a report found South Ribble Council had a lack of awareness about ensuring passenger safety issues surrounding taxi licence applications.

Tory councillor Margaret Smith had faced calls for her to quit from her own party over the handling of the taxi licensing row.

A full council meeting was informed she resigned due to "ill health".

Ms Smith, who has been leader of the authority for the past nine years, was not present at the meeting in Leyland.

Her resignation letter was read out by chief executive Mike Nuttall and was "with immediate effect".

An audit of taxi driver licence applications in December had found appropriate background checks had not been carried out in relation to 40 working taxi drivers in South Ribble.

An independent report, written by solicitors Wilkin Chapman LLP in June, concluded the issues surrounding taxi licence applications had been addressed so it was not necessary to make any further recommendations.

Earlier this week, four of Ms Smith's Conservative colleagues resigned from the group, saying they could not support the leadership due to "ongoing circumstances and failures".

The council is now under no overall control for the first time in almost a decade.

Councillor Colin Clark was unanimously voted in as the interim leader of the authority at the meeting on Wednesday.

Councillor Cliff Hughes, who has worked with Ms Smith for over 30 years, said she was "hard working and a "good colleague" who "gets on with the whole group".

He said one of the "great strengths" of the council was that "whilst the parties are diverse, we do actually get on together and make decisions together and I think that's because Margaret led us into that".

source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-la ... e-36844870

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

Good.

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IDFIMH

No doubt with her being a dirty filthy Tory she got her full penson payout.

has trotsky brainwashed you or something you are sounding more like him every day

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

No, it's just my opinion of the dirty filthy Tories, it's all about the ££££££.

Sometimes Nigel you really show your ignorance. She was a Councillor. Councillors do not get a pension.

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Grandad,

She was a Leader of the Council, I bet the dirty filthy Tory still had her nose in the trough.

Nice Councillor when she's on £25K+ a year.

Councillors get an allowance for the work they do. If they have extra responsibilities such as the chair of a committee or leader of the Council they will get an additional allowance for that responsibility. These allowances are set by an independant body. Councillors may get a mileage allowance in certain circumstances but they do not get any other expenses.

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Grandad,

Take a look you fool, in 2013 she was on £16,900 a year.

That would be with the additional allowance for being the leader of the Council. Do you know anything about being a Councillor. The leader of our County Council gets an allowance in the region of £45,000. You could always look up what the allowances are for each Councillor and what their responsibilities are. Do you even know how much time a Councillor has to put in for their allowance? Do you know how much time it takes to be a leader of the Council? It is pretty much a full time job, a lot of the time being evenings.
Obviously there are quite a lot of career politicians in these positions and they get an allowance that is inline with the time commitment and responsibility required.

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Grandad,

Does a lowly Councillor make budget cuts like Smithy does??

http://www.southribble.gov.uk/content/c ... et-message

All I know is they've all got their noses in the trough, that's enough for me.

You do know that as a member of the public you are entitled to go along to any committee meeting and see how the decisions are made. Any budget discussions are done at full Council meetings and are voted on by the full Council not just the leader.
You should try and attend some of these meetings so that you can get a better understanding of how it works instead of guessing or assuming.

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Grandad,

That just shows that you know nothing at all.

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Grandad,

That's your opinion, I've had dealings with Councillors in the past both locally and County Councillors and they're in it for themselves.

If I ever came across one getting a good kicking on the streets I'd stop and tell them to kick him or her harder.