BARROW

A Taxi driver with a serious health condition has supported calls for the local authority to reverse its policy on three-year licences.
 

John McDonald is among drivers in Barrow who say they are angered at having to pay for new three-year licences when they only plan on staying in the trade for one year before they retire. 

The 65-year-old has lung condition Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and says his health will not be up to driving his taxi for more than a year. 

The A1 driver said: “I’m not going to be driving until I’m 69.

“I want a 12-month licence, not a three-year one.

“My health is going to get worse and I’m not going to be well enough for taxiing - it would be a risk to me and a risk to the public.

 

“What if something happens while I’m driving with someone in the car? 

“I can’t guarantee that I’m going to be fit enough.”
Mr McDonald, who lives in Ocean Road on Walney, said he has had COPD for eight years.
“I can’t face another winter driving my taxi," he said.

Barrow Council has addressed concerns over the three-year licence which has become standard issue for many authorities across the country.

A three-year licence also works out cheaper than for just one year. 

Councillor Tony Callister, spokesman for licensing and public protection, said: “It is a legal requirement for all drivers of taxis and private hire vehicles to obtain a licence to operate. This is to ensure the safety of passengers and other road users. 

“Since 2015, licenses are granted for a period of three years which is not only good value for drivers, but offers them a more streamlined and efficient application and approval process.

“A phased implementation was introduced and our current policy is to issue three year licences, in the absence of any other limitation that would cause the Council to issue a shorter duration licence.

 

“It is also in line with many other local authorities across the country which have already adopted this process.”

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BRISTOL

Taxi drivers who serve Temple Meads on a daily basis have been left unimpressed by the new road layout around the station, and claim the near three years of roadworks have cost them hundreds of loyal customers.
Work to transform the road network around Temple Gate – a £17million Bristol City Council project – officially ended in December.
But the work, which started back in June 2017, was plagued by delays - thanks to the weather, a Victorian cellar and uncharted utility pipes - meaning it has taken more than a year longer than it was supposed to.
As a result the road network around Temple Meads has spent the past three years littered with roadworks, traffic and diversions.
And some of the taxi drivers who are on the road all day in and out of the railway station say the changes to the road layout have been a waste of time and money and actually cost them customers.
Bristol City Council has apologised for any confusion motorists have experienced, and said it plans to install new signs.
But for Steve, who has been a taxi driver in Bristol for 27 years, said after “£17m and three years of traffic chaos nothing has changed”.
He added: “The council has spent all this money and we have had three years of constant congestion and it’s just the same old problems.
“We still can’t turn right into the station if we’re coming from the Bedminster side. And now thanks to the new layout we have to go all the way to Redcliffe Hill or up to Old Market to turn around and come back on ourselves.
“I just don’t understand how this helps cut pollution?

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BRIGHTON

A Taxi business has pulled out of Brighton and Hove before it even took its first booking.

Ola – a “ride-hailing app” considered a rival to Uber – was granted an operator’s licence for one year in May last year by Brighton and Hove City Council. 

But the Indian firm, which already operates in Merseyside, Reading, South Wales, the South West and the West Midlands, has told the council that it now has no plans to operate in Brighton. 

Ola UK Private director Karl Lutzow, 41, made the case for the newcomer at a council licensing panel hearing. 

And the company even took an office in Queen’s Road, Brighton. 

But Labour councillor Jackie O’Quinn, who chairs the council’s Licensing Committee, said: “The market is too full.” 

She said that Brighton and Hove was “overwhelmed” with drivers from Lewes which has had the highest increase in applications in the whole country. 

Councillor O’Quinn added: “They are all Ubers because it’s easier to get a Lewes licence.” 

In Brighton and Hove all licensed drivers must follow the council’s stringent regulations – known as the Blue Book – when operating as a taxi or private hire driver.
 

One of the conditions that Councillor O’Quinn pushed for was to ensure that all Ola drivers were licensed in Brighton and Hove.

 

She also insisted on tight restriction to prevent Ola drivers from outside Brighton and Hove picking up fares and competing unfairly with local drivers.

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LEEDS

Debra Tingey, who runs 001 Cars in Hemsworth, pleaded guilty to three charges at Leeds Magistrates Court last week.

The firm, which also trades under the name Tingey Cars, had employed 53 year-old Keith Walker as a driver, even though he did not have a private hire licence.

Wakefield Council said Walker, of Lodge Street in Hemsworth, was seen driving a private hire vehicle with passengers from Kinsley to South Kirkby.

Tingey, of Woodmoor Road in Hemsworth, pleaded guilty to operated a vehicle with an unlicensed driver, employing an unlicensed driver and allowing the use of an unlicensed vehicle when no insurance was in force.

She was fined £460, ordered to pay costs and banned from driving for six months.

Walker pleaded guilty by post and will be sentenced later this month.

Speaking after the case, Councillor Maureen Cummings, portfolio holder for the environment, said: "The court said these were very serious offences.

"Mrs Tingey holds a position of responsibility within the company and the behaviour involved breaches public safety by allowing Mr Walker, an unlicensed and uninsured driver, to operate within the business.

"Our priority, as a council, is to keep the public safe and this case should send out a firm message to everyone that this behaviour will never be tolerated.”

Coun Cummings said the local authority's licensing committee would now decide whether or not to revoke the company's operator licence.

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