BOLTON DRIVERS STRIKE.

 There were the dramatic scenes as angry taxi drivers stormed into council offices to protest against an increase in licensing charges.

Scores of protesters loudly chanted “we won’t pay” and cheered and clapped as they flooded into the One Stop Shop building in Bolton Town Hall.

The demonstration was the culmination of a morning of action which also saw hundreds of cars flood into the town centre. Major routes around the borough were disrupted by drivers, badly affecting people’s journeys into work.

 It is believed that an emergency meeting has now been arranged between union representatives and council bosses — and drivers are threatening more action if they are not heard.

Yasir Amir, chairman of the Bolton Private Hire Association, said: "This is just the start. We are protesting against the council for the increases in licence fees.

"The major strike will be very soon, this is just a few hours of protest this morning, we are very happy with the turnout today but we have got bigger plans.

"If the council are prepared to sit down with us then we can stop this, but if they don't we will carry on."

 The row stems from a decision ratified by Bolton Council’s Licensing Committee last week to raise the cost of a licence to run both private hire and hackney cabs in Bolton.


The changes came in response to a national review of licensing prices across the country, following a landmark ruling in Westminster which found that sex shops were being overcharged for licences.

The review — which has been independently audited — found that in order to correctly cover its costs, the licensing department must raise the cost of a first time licence for private hire and hackney drivers from £80 to £195 — a rise of 143 per cent.

For current drivers, the cost of renewal licences has gone up as well — from £41 to £82 (50 per cent) for hackney cabs and from £41 to £114 (178 per cent) for private hire drivers.These rises will, however, be staggered across three years, to limit the impact on drivers and will not reach the full new price until 2017/18.

The council has also pointed out that its new renewal fee of £204 is on the lower end in Greater Manchester, with only Salford and Manchester offering cheaper deals.

Cllr Martin Donaghy, Bolton Council’s licensing chairman, said the increase, although 'not ideal', was agreed by all parties on the committee as the fairest way to implement the results of the review.

He said: “The fact the increase will be phased in means the charge will actually only be going up by 52 pence per week and we have used £140,000 of one-off funding to allow for that phasing.

“We have looked at other boroughs and found that our plans are competitive and average and it is important to point out that for our new three-year licence fee includes everything needed to be on the road.”

This was not a view shared by the hundreds of protesting drivers.

Cabbie Mike Hammond said: “Enough is enough, it feels like they are changing the rules — we don’t mind them putting up the fees a bit, but 178 per cent is ridiculous.”

Yasif Khan, secretary of the Private Hire Association, added: “Our licence fee was £41 and will go to £114 — that is a 178 per cent rise, inflation is only three per cent at the moment.

“If they did this to the council tax there would be an uproar everywhere, they have to talk to us and come to their senses, we are not going to pay it.”

The major protest caused problems for thousands of commuters attempting to get into and around the borough and there was anger directed towards the striking drivers.

Ashley Unsworth was attempting to make her way into Bolton for work. She said: “This is really stupid and I don’t agree with it at all. It is stopping normal people from being able to come to work — I was really delayed by it.”

Bolton College student Francis Greenall, aged 27, was delayed by more than an hour on his bus route from Bury to Bolton.

He said: "It wasn’t great — my journey took 90 minutes, when it should only be 30 minutes.

“I am going to be late for my lectures now and will have to catch up on work.”

A spokesman for Bolton Council said: “We are disappointed by the strike as we have met regularly with the drivers’ associations and kept them informed about the changes.
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“The new charges ensure we comply with statutory regulations and all money gathered through licence fees is invested directly back into the service. We are happy to meet the drivers’ representatives again to discuss their concerns.”

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