At the moment, families of some taxi drivers have argued they risk losing not only a loved one but their livelihood if they are bereaved.
However, Coun Andrew Carter says he is worried, if the principle of inheritance is accepted, some licences could pass to people who don’t speak English - contrary to the council’s own rules on who is a “fit and proper” person to hold them.
“This would be a huge step backwards for Leeds, and flies in the face of the work of successive governments to promote inclusivity in the UK,” he said.
Liberal Democrat spokesman Coun Ryk Downes admitted he had some concerns adding: “It will be interesting to see what comes back as a result of consultation - although I think it needs to comply with the existing standards.”
However, Labour’s Coun Graham Hyde claimed Coun Carter had “jumped the gun”.
“It’s all out for consultation with the public and the trade. If the public say they don’t want to see Hackney carriage licences go to widows, then it won’t happen,” he said.
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Rochdale
Six taxi drivers have had their licences torn up in a council clamp-down called in the wake of the town’s grooming scandal.
Rochdale council say they have adopted a ‘robust’ approach to protecting ‘vulnerable members of the community’ from rogue cabbies after nine men were jailed for 77 years in 2012 for a string of sexual abuse against youngsters in Heywood .
Five of those who were convicted of child sex offences were private hire drivers who drove their young victims around in their licenced cabs.
Since then, council bosses who issue licences to private and public hire cabs, say that they have overhauled the way they assess new and existing drivers to see if they are ‘fit and proper’ to be on the road.
That has resulted in six drivers losing their licences after they were judged to pose a potential risk to the public either because they had an existing criminal conviction or because the council believed there was a ‘reasonable cause’ to question their suitability to be a cabbie.
An seventh driver also had their licence revoked, but had it reinstated on appeal.
Of the six drivers who had their licences revoked, one allegedly tried to start an relationship with a 15-year-old girl while another allegedly had connections to some of those jailed for grooming vulnerable youngsters in May 2012.
Another had exposed himself to a customer while a different driver had convictions for common assault and had made threats to kill.
All six drivers have had their licences withdrawn over the last 12 months.
In a report to councillors, Andy Glover , the council’s public protection manager, said the council was going further than other authorities to try to safeguard people.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/local-news/rochdale-middleton-heywood-taxi-drivers-7020709
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Edinburgh
A taxi driver took a 14-year-old schoolgirl to a flat in his cab before raping her.
The teenager thought she was being taken shopping by Mohammed Ashraf but she was taken to an empty flat.
Ashraf began looking through her phone asking her questions about photos and texts before he began molesting her.
Advocate depute David Taylor told the High Court in Edinburgh: "She told him to stop and tried to push his hands away but he was too strong."
Mr Taylor said she told him that she wanted to leave and her family would be wondering where she was. Ashraf, 53, then pushed her down and lay on top of her.
The advocate depute said: "She tried to push him off, pushing with both hands to his chest and shoulder. She could not get him off - he was too big for her to move.
Mr Taylor said: "The victim kept on asking him if she could go home. He replied 'No'. She said she did not want to. The accused told her he would only let her go home if she did this."
The prosecutor said after the assault Ashraf appeared "annoyed" with the victim and asked her what she would tell her family.
He added: "She told him that she would say that they had been shopping."
When the girl got home, she sent her sister a text message. Five minutes later, her sister arrived home and went towards the bedroom they shared.
Mr Taylor said: "As she approached the door, the victim came running towards her crying. The victim's face was red and her eyes were swollen. She hugged her sister and mumbled 'something's happened'."
She told her sister her attacker had kissed her, touched her and "made me do things".
The police were called and Ashaf was later detained and taken to a police station.
The court heard Ashraf's DNA was found on swabs taken from the girl and her DNA was present on swabs from him.
Married Ashraf, from Edinburgh, admitted assaulting and raping the teenager on November 16 in 2012 at the flat in the city.
The Crown accepted his not guilty plea to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner by repeatedly phoning the girl and waiting outside her school. His not guilty plea to a further charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner towards another female was also accepted.
Ashraf has been put on the sex offenders register and will be sentenced in June.
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Walsall
Black Country taxi drivers call to keep cars longer
Taxi drivers say they are struggling to make ends meet due to rules stating they must replace their vehicles every 10 years.
They are asking to be allowed to keep their cars for 15 years to cut costs – and insist it will have no impact on safety.
The issue has gone before a Walsall Council taxi committee, but no decision was made as members wanted to get more information.
Drivers say it has been rumbling on for five years and needs to be resolved.
Walsall Private Hire Association chairman Zulfqar Ali said: “This could go on for months yet and it has already been dragging on for years.
“There would be financial benefits for the drivers as this is a difficult time for us and things like this make it even harder.
“There would be no compromise in safety for the people of Walsall,” he added.
“The cars have to be checked twice a year to see if they are roadworthy and it isn’t fair to stop us using a car when it is still in good condition.
“There are different standards for black cabs and it is very frustrating.”
Licensing committee chairman Councillor Keith Sears said: “We have asked officers to draw up a report and it will come back before the next committee.
The extension could be pursued, but my own personal view is that if we are not careful we will have a fleet of private hire vehicles that are old and out of date.
“If we do extend the lifetime of the vehicles there could be a need for an extra test to be carried out on them, so they would be checked three times a year.
“As a vehicle gets older parts get worn and things start to go wrong. But we will look at the report and take it from there.”
The association has put forward a series of proposals for the council to consider and Mr Ali says he hopes they will come to an agreement soon. It comes after a string of long-running disputes between taxi drivers and council bosses in Wolverhampton over licensing of older vehicles.
Drivers there were opposed to new council rules allowing older cars – saying there are already too many taxis in the city.
New Hackney Carriage drivers could buy taxis up to four years old – with that increasing to six years in 2015.
But Parminder Sekhon, chairman of Wolverhampton Taxi Owners’ Association, said any such move would lessen the quality of taxis in the city.
Figures released last summer showed 1,000 fewer taxi drivers are on the streets of the West Midlands and Staffordshire since the recession – the first drop in eight years.
It comes despite repeated calls by cabbies for a cap on the number of licences issued as they complain there is not enough work to go around.
The figures were similar all over the country as the Department For Transport said the recession had resulted in a drop in the number of Hackney carriages and private hire licences since 2011.
In the West Midlands the overall number of licences of all types dropped from 15,866 to 15,076. However, there were increases in Walsall from 1,388 in 2011 to 1,445 in 2013.
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A TAXI driver from Worcester has appeared in court after being charged with committing a serious sexual assault on a customer.
Naeem Ashraf, aged 25, of Oaklands, Worcester, appeared at Redditch Magistrates’ Court this morning charged with three separate sexual assault offences.
A woman reported to police that she had been sexually assaulted while a passenger in a taxi that she had hailed in Trinity Street, Worcester, at 3am yesterday (Monday).
Mr Ashraf was arrested later yesterday and charged overnight. At his court appearance, he was referred to appear at Worcester Crown Court on August 11.
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