LONDON DEMO
TfL has got a duty to protect the public and they're not doing that."
Mr Davis added that he had spoken to TfL after the investigation who had told him the problem could take three years to fix.
He added: "They told us it's a GMC problem.
"They said the only way around it was to wait for three years until the driver's need to have their medicals again. "It's not good enough."
Cab drivers with placards lined both sides of the street to demonstrate over what they thought to be a lack of regulation.
Black cab driver Kevin O'Connor called on TfL to launch a public enquiry. He said: "It's the world of health and safety so how are they getting away with it."
Black cab drivers must take a medical exam at their registered GP every three years, costing £150 a time.
Dennis Saunders, who has been a London cab driver for more than 20 years, said: "we don't go into this job thinking we'll be millionaires.
"All we want to do is provide an honest living for our families.
"Soon Uber will have full control of the market, then they won't be cheap.
"We're the heart and soul of the city and we're the eyes and ears."
https://goo.gl/MofJhs
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Council bosses in South Tyneside are being asked to close loopholes in taxi licensing laws.
They will be told next week that a man who drove his car through a barrier to confront council staff after they twice refused to give him a taxi licence now has permission to drive minibuses.
Another driver who had his licence taxi revoked after he used booking records to inappropriately contact two women is allowed to drive larger vehicles for the same firm.
Both cases are evidence of a discrepancy in licensing laws, a report claims.
In a report to South Tyneside Council’s licensing committee, the authority’s economic regeneration director David Cramond said the system for issuing licences to taxi drivers - hackney carriages of up to eight-seats - is different to that for drivers of nine-to-16-seat vehicles known as Public Carriage Vehicles (PCVs).
He said to get a hackney carriage licence, drivers must produce an up to date criminal records check and can be refused a licence if they have convictions or cautions which the authority believe “renders the driver a risk to the public”.
But PCV drivers, Mr Cramond says are subject to such checks.
He said: “The applicant is asked to sign a self-declaration and, if they declare that they have no previous convictions, a licence will be granted with no further checks.”
His report cited a driver who got a PCV licence and applied to drive school children despite a North East council revoking his taxi licence in 2014 after he was convicted of harassment and was accused of harassing and having inappropriate conduct with a child.
Mr Cramond said: “It is important to point out that the majority of PCV drivers are likely to fit into the category of ‘fit and proper’.
“This report is intended to highlight concerns surrounding an opportunity available to unscrupulous persons wishing to exploit an opportunity which enables them to work in close proximity to the general public some of who will be vulnerable.”
Mr Cramond added: “The North East strategic licensing group which represents the 12 licensing authorities in the North East believes that this is an outdated view which no longer reflects reality.
“Larger minibuses, driven by PCV drivers, are now regularly hired out by taxi companies and are often used to transport groups, or individuals, in exactly the same way as a taxi.
“Even when transporting a group of passengers, it would be common for a lone individual to be picked up first or dropped off last.
“It is essential that the public receive the same level of protection regardless of whether they are using an eight-seater taxi or a nine or more seat minibus.”
The council’s licensing committee will discuss the report at their meeting next Friday.
https://goo.gl/ZL1Ck3
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GLOUCESTER
A litany of offences including drug possession, assault and fraud has seen taxi drivers have their licences revoked in Gloucester.
As a result of disciplinary meetings held by the city's licensing committee, nine have had their licence as hackney carriage drivers revoked in the last ten years.
A further 14 have had the licence suspended.
Incidents that have prompted the action include drivers being charged with possessing class A and C drugs, possessing a loaded weapon and assault.
Other charges include sex offences, child exploitation and even a kidnap charge.
https://goo.gl/s6UiNh
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RHYL
Rhyl female taxi driver was in on crowbar attack plot .... on passenger in her cab
Single mother Bonnie Ainslie had taken the vehicle off course so men could attack fare she had picked up ... but was caught out by her mobile phone
A female cabbie was in on a plot that saw men stop her taxi and attack the passenger she was carrying.
Gary Morgan was being taken along River Street in Rhyl when another car pulled in front of the cab he was in.
Two men jumped out and, armed with a knife and an iron bar, dragged Mr Morgan from the taxi and began to beat him.
Mr Morgan managed to defend himself as blows were rained down on him.
Taxi driver Bonnie Ainsley had offered to take the injured man to hospital after the attack, but he insisted on using her phone to call 999.
During the course of the police investigation, detectives found that there had been calls between her mobile and one belonging to one of the attackers in the hours leading up to the beating.
When she was interviewed by police after the August 2015 attack, the 40-year-old single mum claimed that she’d been asked by one of the gang to pick Mr Morgan up so they could attack him, but she’d refused.
However, she had gone a different route to the one Mr Morgan had originally asked for, and hadn’t seem surprised when the other car suddenly pulled up, blocking her path.
Today, she was found guilty to conspiracy to assault Mr Morgan by a jury at Mold Crown Court, and sentenced to 18 month in prison, suspended for two years.
The only reason she had avoided jail was because she had to care for her young son, Judge Rhys Rowlands told her.
She was placed on rehabilitation and she was tagged for four months to remain indoors between 9pm and 7am.
Her defence barrister Gary Rawlinson said she denied having any part of a plan to attack anyone.
https://goo.gl/NdSeba
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PRESTON
A bungling thug who shattered a cabbie’s jaw in two places before going on the run - led the police straight to his £24,000 cannabis stash.
Stuart Snape, 30, from Hern Avenue, Lostock Hall, has now been jailed for 40 months after admitting wounding, producing cannabis and abstracting £1,650 electricity.
And the hapless criminal’s victim 45-year-old William Wade, from Bamber Bridge, says he hasn’t worked a Saturday night since the March attack and needs ongoing treatment for his shocking injury.
“I’m glad that he’s in jail now and it’s a little bit of closure,” said William who works with Miller’s taxis in Preston. “He wrote a letter of apology which the police gave to me but no sentence is long enough, I needed him behind bars.
“I’ve been trying to get back to working Saturday nights but I had a panic attack the first time I tried.
“I was hoping to go back last Saturday but it was an England game and the night I got attacked England were also playing - it seems silly but it just makes me think ‘what if’.”
https://goo.gl/V45oxC
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