Taxi Driver Online

November 20, 2007 Tuesday

Licence for sex shops cut but taxis pay more

Daily Echo

THE cost of a sex shop licence in Southampton has been be slashed while the cost of taxi licences are to rise.

Councillors reduced the cost of the fee for a sex shop from £11,610 to £7,500 to avoid accusations of profiteering.

Licensing chiefs insisted the move was not intended to encourage more sex shops to open. There are four in the city. The cash will be ringfenced to pay for the administration and enforcement of licences for sex shops.

Additional cash

Licensing officer Richard Black admitted the fee could be reduced further in coming years.

Meanwhile, licences for taxis are to go up for the first time in seven years to bring in an additional £28,483.

Licences for hackney carriages and private hire vehicles will go up by eight per cent to £150. New driver licences will be slightly reduced although annual renewals will go up by 14 per cent, to £50.

A new three-year driving tax licence costing £120 will be introduced. Charges will also be increased for replacement plates and documents and transfers of ownership.

Operators will have to pay a new £50 licence and pay a 39 per cent hike on fees for each vehicle up to a maximum of £1,000.

There are currently 263 hackney carriages licensed in the city - and these are due for a review in the spring.

A further 449 private hire cars are licensed, although the number fluctuates with public demand.

Clive Johnson from the Southampton Taxi Trade Consultative Council said trade representatives had agreed to the council's proposals.

"The extra fees are supposed to enhance our service by having more enforcement officers," he said.

The new taxi fees will be put out to two weeks' public consultation after they were agreed by the city council's licensing committee.
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How can it cost £30,000 to keep tabs on four shops?

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IDFIMH

They are probably under constant surveilance by councillors in long mac's, nudge nudge wink wink if you know what I mean.

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Grandad,

I dare say they have a lot of "test" purchases

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