David Wilsons’ New Incarnation
Source: NEBusiness.co.uk Aug 8 2009 by Chris Knox, The Journal
A FORMER Berwick council officer has set up a taxi consultancy to help drivers navigate the twist and turns of business as authorities clamp down on unlawful licences.
David Wilson has set up a2z licensing in Alnwick, Northumberland, to help the region’s taxi and private cab companies get to grips with the mountains of legislation of which he believes most people are unaware.
Mr Wilson spent almost five years as licensing manager at Berwick Borough Council before recently taking voluntary redundancy after council services were merged in the county.
Before this he spent 15 years in the legal sector, where he worked as a litigation executive for practices in the North East.
He now believes his experience will prove invaluable to taxi drivers and has already signed up his first corporate client in the shape of Blue Line Taxis, the largest taxi firm in Northumberland, Durham and Tyneside.
He said: “The taxi industry in the North East is thriving, yet at the same time the services available to provide help and guidance to owners and drivers are minimal.
“Taxi Licence Protect is a very affordable way for people in the trade to access specialist licensing advice, in what is often a complex area of law.
“I have over 20 years’ experience in private legal practice, local government and training and know that the complexities of the legislation can be of concern.
“With this product I intend to give members peace of mind and help them understand the rules and regulations that govern the industry.”
He is currently advising a driver whose licence is at risk because his car has tinted windows though he was granted a licence six months ago. This is one of many issues Mr Wilson said was driving many taxi companies to despair, with others including restrictions on the number of seats allowed in the back of a vehicle and what colour it is allowed to be to operate in a particular area.
He said: “It’s absolutely ridiculous how much cabbies have to put up with and I 100% believe that there is a need for a service like this as so many drivers are getting themselves into difficulties.”
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
He said: “The taxi industry in the North East is thriving, yet at the same time the services available to provide help and guidance to owners and drivers are minimal HA HA HA LOL
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
Yep this sounds like a mr ” i’l help you’s find more loop holes to get a load more knackers in to the trade ”
God help us
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
Now I wonder why Mr Wilson lost his job when Berwick council merged……
Never heard such `shite` in my life,if that idiot thinks the cab trade is thriving,after all `HE` was the saviour who showed all the idiots how to circumnavigate the regulations and get `plates` via back door methods.
So now after flooding the market with mickey mouse plates,and costing councils (those who did enforcement) at anyrate,time and money in court actions,HE reckons he has done us all a favour,and now wants to help drivers negociate the legislation that is meant to govern us and protect the public. Or is it HE wants to show more idiots how to get round the law for his own gain this time….since the license money last time went to the council.
Personally,with references like that,If i needed a solicitor or legal advisor,i`d trust the Kray twins than HIM…
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
why would anyone go to someone who believes that he has years of knowledge, yet his vast knowledge cost the taxpayers of berwick in a failed court case!
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
He should be banned from going within a 1000 miles of North Tyneside & Newcastle, for the damage he and his cronnies did to the Trade down here!!!!!
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
I am that David Wilson; and now I am no longer employed by the council I can set the record straight.
Firstly, I did not find the “loophole”. The loophole, if that is what it was, had always been there and had been used by the established trade in our region to obtain licences from Tynedale, Derwentside and Hambledon councils for years.
Berwick didn’t start this, but certainly Berwick did become the most popular council with which to licence.
That was for a variety of reasons; in relation to vehicles that was because Berwick did not prohibit tinted glass (except as prohibited by law to windscreen and front side windows) and did not prohibit certain MPV / minibus type vehilces because of seating configuration or non-unobstructed access to doors.
Can anyone tell me when a passenger was last attacked by a tinted window? Tinted glass does not make vehilces unsafe. An unfit person to be a driver may make a vehilce unsafe for passengers, but tinted glass does not. If a driver is a fit and proper person, the tint of glass shouldn’t affect public safety in anyway whatsoever. If a driver is unfit and they attack a passenger, they don’t do it where they are going to be seen or heard, do they? No, they take the passenger somewhere quiet and out of the way of passers-by, so whether the vehilce has clear or tinted glass makes no difference to the danger the passenger is then in.
There is, of course, the argument regularly advanced by licensing officers that they need to be able to see into vehilces to ensure there are not too many passengers being carried. However, as most vehilces now have head-restraints all round, it can be difficult to see how many passengers there are in a vehilce with clear glass in daylight, let alone at night with the roof of the vehilce placing the interior into shadow, and reflections on the glass or glare of the headlights of other vehilces making it even more difficult or impossible to see into a vehilce.
I confess that when I joined the council in 2004, I agreed with the majority of other licensing officers that tinted glass should be prohibited, but I was persuaded otherwise by the above facts, advanced to me by an officer of another council, who had previously served as a traffic cop.
If anyone can show that tinted glass does adversely affect public safety, I’m prepared to do a further U-turn and go back to my original thoughts on the subject, but the fact is nothing in the past five years has shown tinted glass to be a problem. In fact, as more manufacturers fit tinted glass as standard, its going to become more difficult to find a vehilce capable of being licensed by some councils! Tell me, what is the problem with tinted glass?
Can someone also tell me which council is right between Newcastle and North Tyneside on their respective policies on seating configurations and unobstructed (or obstructed) access to doors? If one is right, surely the other is wrong!
The fact is councils should be promoting public safety (and pasenger comfort) when dealing with taxi licensing. I can understand why some councils initially refused to licence vehilces with three rows of forward facing seats, without unobstructed access to doors, because they were new and no-one could be sure whether this genuinely presented a danger to passengers in the event of an accident. However, these types of vehilces have now been around for years and, so far as I can see, no-one has ever been able to produce any evidence to show that passenger safety is in any way compromised in such vehicles. Some councils, having conducted exensive research, have removed their restrictions, because they now accept that time has shown such seating configurations do not have an adverse affect on public safety. In the circumstances, is there any reason why such vehicles shouldn’t be licensed?
As for drivers, Berwick applied the law correctly in connection with non-UK drivers, which other councils did not. Whilst some of you won’t accept this as a ringing endorsement of the correctness of Berwick’s approach, North Tyneside Council now has a policy that mirrors that applied by Berwick.
The lack of a knowledge or locality test obviously also made Berwick attractive to some, but the fact is the majority of drivers licensed by Berwick were not individuals from outside the UK, but were people who generally (but not always) had licences with other councils and regarded Berwick as fair (or at least fairer than any other council they were licensed with). And that’s despite the fact Berwick required annual Enhanced CRB checks and, more recently, also conducted annual driver licence checks of DVLA records (and could also randomly check them during the period of the driver’s licence).
Let’s also address the High Court judgment – Newcastle did not win, despite what they said at the time. I had always thought there wasn’t a good outcome for Berwick, because if we had won, we risked becoming the licensing authority for every private hire vehicle and driver in the country who wanted hackney licences (and Berwick couldn’t have coped with that), and if we lost, well loosing is never good!
Many have said the judge “bottled it” or “fudged” the judgment, but I actually believe this to have been a very clever and workable decision. It requires every council to consider generally and on a case by case basis over what area it can (and will) reasonably carry out it’s obligations to monitor, control and regulate the vehicles it licences; and gives them the power to refuse a licence if it cannot fulfill its enforcment responsibilities. No-one can genuinely suggest that isn’t a sensible approach.
This is a decsion that was not forseen by either side before the hearing – both Newcastle and Berwick saw this as a win or lose situation. For reasons that I still think should remain confidential, I cannot tell you why, but I can tell you that Newcastle were clearly not confident that they were going to win!
The judgment did not cost the taxpayers of Berwick anything. It cost the taxi licensing budget a little less than what would otherwise have been a surplus on the account. Some might think a very clever decision of the judge’s to balance Berwick’s books and to compensate Newcastle for part of its costs, knowing how much it had lost in revenue.
The fact is, me and my colleagues at Berwick, and the Council as a whole acted throughout in an honest, open and transparent way, interpreting the law as it had been interpreted before by many councils the length and breadth of the country. We had no secret agenda.
Whether you like me or my involvement in the Newcastle v Berwick case or not is a matter entirely up to each of you as individuals, but what you cannot genuinely dispute is my knowledge of the law or my abilities to represent my clients or members of my subscription scheme. If anyone wants to see my professional profile so that they may make thier own mind up, I’ll happily email it to you. My email address is david.wilson@a2zlicensing.co.uk
When you’ve considered that, you might then be able to decide whether the service I’m offering is one that is needed and good value for money. After all, there are very few solicitors about who know much about taxi licensing law and even fewer who know how the laws relating to council administration impacts on that, but I do. If you need a solicitor who knows the law, can you afford them?
Coincidentally, to date, I have been involved in matters concerning the councils for Northumberland, North Tyneside, Newcastle, Gateshead, South Tyneside, Durham, Stockton, Calderdale, Barnsley, Scunthorpe, Cheshire West and Chester, Cheshire East, and Bolton, so far as I can remember.
Whether you love me or loathe me, I don’t really care; and will do my best to assist or represent anyone who seeks may advice, because that’s my job – I assist and represent people, just like solicitors and barristers do. I might personally agree with my client’s point of view, but I might not, but my views really aren’t relevant when it comes down to doing my professional best for my clients.
On a personal note, perhaps others would be good enough to avoid making defamatory remarks, because they really aren’t necessary.
Finally, I welcome everyone’s comments, because even if I disagree with you, I will have learned something by simply knowing of an opposing view. let’s hope we can all learn something by listening to the views of others and not simply condemning people, because they dare to disagree with us!
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
What is the point in this service? Yes Blue line has paid for me and every other drivers membership, but this is for their benefit (if their Berwick drivers loose their plates and have problems changing to North Tyneside he’ll be out of pocket) you’d be better off joining a union, at least they will give you legal representation amongst other benefits. But the problem with Blue Line drivers being in a union is the union would help drivers with problems they have with Blue Line, Shanksy would then have to justify his ever changing fines and policy’s he comes up with or how many drivers he is taken on! But Blue Line dont want to be held accountable, they just want everyone else to be accountable
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
On the general point of choosing a source of support in the never-ending struggle to get commonsense applied in the area of taxi and PH licensing, it is my experience – gathered over 15 years, and across the country in the last five years, that there is no easy route to solving any particular issue or defending yourself or association in the face of the hopelessly worded legislation and regulations/conditions in which we are enmeshed.
Solicitors rarely specialise in Taxi law – I know of one -based in the West Midlands – he usually ‘runs rings’ around hapless lawyers employed by local authorities.
Apart from that you get someone who wants money up front, probably to fund buying a copy of Button’s book, to prepare himself to defend you, without a scintilla of an idea of just how the trade operates and the idiocies of the rules and regulations imposed upon us.
Then we have the Trades Unions. These sometimes dip their toes in the water seeing a possibly lucrative pool of new members. They often provide legal cover but not to defend you against rules and regulations if they feel the risks of costs are not worth it.
A glaring example of this was the case of Kaye v Darlington Borough Council. Having won in the Magistrates Court the union involved refused to support the member when the councils (about 50 of them) ganged up to fund Darlington in an appeal to the High court in London.
The driver was then left alone in London in front of a High court judge with an army of barristers funded by the councils who insist on promoting the money-spinning DSA Taxi driver test before granting, or in the case of Darlington, re-newing a drivers’ licence.
That case, once lost, has allowed councils to impose this test as a pre-condition of licensing; and thus unchallngeable when evermore of them seek to introduce it, even where drivers have been licensed for up to thirty and more years.
So then we are left with a range of national, regional and local associations, few of which have any employee or member with in-depth knowledge or ability to defend or prepare a case for submission to a council or court.
Finally, we have the professional advocates who offer their services to Operators, associations or individual licence holders, to assist, advise and manage cases against councils acting improperly or unlawfully OR to help individuals who may have erred in some way to defend themselves before a committee; and possibly to prepare a case for appeal to the magistrates court or Crown court.
Although they may not always be able to appear in court on your behalf they can save you coinsiderable sums of money by cutting down on ‘solicitors’ time in preparing a case – which as we know, does not come cheaply.
So, you pays your money and takes your pick.
If someone offers you something for nothing you might well be suspicious but if the service works and benefits you or your work colleagues then why not give it a chance?
As someone who provides such services I declare an interest. I can claim some successes and will admit to some failures, when conducting cases against councils on one matter or another. I don’t doubt that there are those better qualified than me, in some cases,to research and argue an issue. The point is, the trade usually does not want to pay the costs involved in bringing high cost specialists/solicitors and barristers in to sort out their difficulties.
Even the use of a specialist intermediary with experience of working in the trade and tackling issues in front of committees, officers and auditors costs money – I need to eat as well; and travelling around the country is not cheap either.
Alan Fidler
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@alan fidler, The dodo became extinct because it could not adapt and evolve therefore it served no useful purpose.
Nature can seem cruel Alan, although I do like your sentence structure but then I also like candy floss.
Sic vivitur!
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@Ollie Beak,
are you implying that a hack is like a dodo here?
well the dodo didnt become extinct because it couldnt evolve, it didnt have time to evolve, evolution takes millions of years!
the dodo became extinct due to the stupidity of human nature, finding a food source to exploit, and then raping it till there was no more, not thinking of tommorow, just today!
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Fiddling while Rome burns.
Class!
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That’s life by the way!
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
p–s off back to bewick we dont need you hear ne NE DRIVER.
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade