BOLTON

A TAXI driver who had his licence revoked after refusing to carry a guide dog in the front of his car has been ordered to pay thousands of pounds.

Nasar Perwez was ordered to pay costs of £3,848 when his appeal against a decision by Hyndburn Council to revoke his private hire driver’s licence was dismissed at Blackburn Magistrates Court.

Mr Perwez, 41, of Worcester Road, Blackburn, had his private hire drivers licence revoked by the council’s licensing judicial committee in October last year following a complaint from a man that Mr Perwez had refused to carry his assistance dog in the front of his private hire vehicle.

He had been booked to carry a passenger and guide dog.

On arriving at the passenger’s house, he loaded some articles into the boot, but then insisted the guide dog ride on its own in the rear of his vehicle, despite the passenger explaining that the dog was trained to sit at his feet in the front passenger footwell.

Mr Perwez then unloaded the articles and left them on the side of the road, causing difficulty for the passenger who could not see them, and who was helped to retrieve them by his 92-year-old mother.

The magistrates heard how the refusal to carry the guide dog where it had been trained to travel meant that both the dog and owner would become distressed, and that the refusal had affected the passenger’s confidence in travelling.

The magistrates found that Mr Perwez had been inconsistent in his recall of the incident and that his testimony in court varied from interviews by licensing officers.

They determined that the decision of the council that Mr Perwez is not a fit and proper person to hold a private hire driver’s licence was correct.

Cllr Melissa Fisher, chair of the licensing judicial committee, said: “Hyndburn Borough Council take customer safety very seriously and will always fully investigate any complaints received and take any appropriate action to ensure that members of the public can have confidence when getting into a vehicle licensed by this council.

“The council will always do everything we can to ensure that people who use our licensed vehicles are not discriminated against in any way and the actions of the driver were totally unacceptable.”

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 WOOLWICH

A taxi driver who murdered mother-of-five Sarah Wellgreen is to be sentenced at Woolwich Crown Court on Friday.

Ben Lacomba was found guilty of killing his ex-partner Ms Wellgreen, 46, who disappeared without a trace in October 2018.

Despite extensive searches, her body has never been found.

Lacomba, 39, was convicted of her murder by a crown court jury in October. The pair had split up in 2014 but still lived together at their home in New Ash Green, Kent, at the time of her disappearance.

The trial heard how he killed beautician Ms Wellgreen in a “calculated manner designed to avoid detection, to leave no trace” and to “remove her from his life forever”.

The couple met online in 2004, but by the time of her disappearance their relationship was marked by “tensions and problems”, the court heard.

Lacomba said he was asleep in bed on the night of the alleged killing.

But the court heard that he switched off a CCTV system in the middle of the night and parked his car in an unusual spot in an attempt to evade detection.

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SEFTON


 Controversial plans to charge HGV, bus and taxi drivers for use of some roads will help people live longer - according to the leader of Sefton Council .

The local authority is so concerned over nitrogen dioxide in parts of south Sefton that they hired global environmental consultancy AECOM to identify specific areas where air pollution is highest.

And from their research, a Clean Air Zone (CAZ) system, similar to London's Low Emission Zone, has been proposed to reduce emissions and air pollution in the borough.

 At a Cabinet meeting this morning, council leader Ian Maher said it is an 'important issue'. He said: "We have pockets of the borough where people are living shorter lives due to respiratory conditions."

A number of the country's local authorities - including Liverpool City Council - have received significant funding from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to prepare business cases aimed at reducing emissions.

Cllr Maher continued: "DEFRA has given funding for elsewhere but yet again Sefton has been missed. We have a major national road with increasing traffic but DEFRA don’t seem to see this as an issue.

"Unfortunately we’ll have to find the funding ourselves as once again we’ve been let down by the government."

 The areas in which charges would be enforced are:
On and around Millers Bridge ( Bootle )
On and around Hawthorne Road (Bootle)
On and around South Road (Waterloo)
On and around Princess Way ( Litherland )

If or when the CAZ is established, bus, coach, taxi, private hire, and heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) drivers will all be required to pay a charge to enter or to move within the areas set out above.

Part of a report on the council's website says: "Road traffic is responsible for the large majority of NO2 in the air, with diesel powered vehicles being the largest contributor of this pollutant.

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