Source: South Wales Argus
NEWPORT council is facing a £550,000 legal bill after it lost a judicial review over its decision to introduce age restrictions on taxis.
Council leader Matthew Evans told councillors at a council meeting yesterday that the authority plans to contest the amount being claimed by London law firm Neumans who represented Newport Taxi Drivers Association, if they do not accept a reduced amount.
The council believes the lawyers’ actual costs as a result of the judicial review into a change in its taxi regulations should be around £100,000.
But this would have been doubled because the system allows the successful side to claim what is called an “uplift” depending on the risk that lawyers took on in fighting the case.
The council says that as the lawyers are claiming a 100 percent uplift it shows the authority had a strong case and the risk taken by the taxi drivers’ lawyers was very high.
Cllr Evans told the Argus: “I am outraged at the amount being claimed which is clearly excessive and an abuse of public funds.
“We are offering £200,000, which we believe is a more reasonable reflection of the costs involved which includes the extra £100,000 imposed by the no win no fee legal system used in this case.
“If it is not accepted, we will insist on the matter going back before the court for a detailed assessment hearing and we will contest the remainder of their bill on the basis that it is excessive.”
Last November, a judge in the Administrative Court in Cardiff ruled in favour of the Newport Taxi Drivers Association after hearing the judicial review.
The case was brought after the council introduced age restrictions on hackney carriages and private hire vehicles, which meant that licensed vehicles could not be more than 12 years old.
Chairman of Newport Taxi Drivers’ Association, Lionel Morris, said: “Time and time again we said we did not want to take it to a judicial review.
“It should never have cost the people of Newport, the council should have sat down and talked to us.”
Labour council leader Bob Bright said the news came as a “bombshell” while Labour councillor John Richards questioned why the authority had not provided councillors with an estimate of costs earlier.
He added it was a “scandal and a disgrace” that half a million pounds of tax payers money had to be spent on the bill.
