Alan Newton Licensing and Public Protection Officer North Tyneside Council
Phoned a Taxi Driver today to inform him that a passenger in his car had been caught on CCTV whilst smoking in the passenger seat of his Taxi.The Driver was told that a letter of warning would be in the post.
This technology is so great it can catch a passenger in the car smoking yet it fails to spot a Private Hire car sitting on a Hackney Rank, it fails to spot Hacks cherry picking or knocking fares back, it fails to see any amount of Private Hire cars dotted all around the street adjacent to a Taxi Rank in North Shields all day long. Next the CCTV will be used to go after those with out of date Fare Tables. Get a grip Mr.Newton you cannot justify your job on smoking and fare tables alone. If you can employ a CCTV camera for this then you could single handedly clean up the Taxi Trade within a month by use of the same technology.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Some words of wisdom re:- Alan Newton….
think jobsworth…. think Alan
think yes-man…… think Alan
think 2 faced…… add another 2 onto that
think prick…….. and your not far off !!!!
Regards, a long term NT taxi driver.
In reply to Alan Newton from North Tyne,from this comment I assume you are happy to use cctv and other covert means to secure a possible conviction for such a minor offence,BUT not so eagre to use the same technology to trap unlicensed and therefore UNINSURED drivers,who pose a real risk to public saftey.
Come on sir,get real,why do you suppose the police dont pull every vehicle up that they must see breaking this `anti smoking` law,could it be the law is just short of unenforceable,and the police would rather spend that money on something far more serious and worth while.
I`m not standing up defending smokers,I don`t smoke myself,and hate the smell of it,but for god sake,lets get the priorities right,do the smokers if you like,but do the pirate cabs and muggers,and anyone else that puts the public at risk too.
well said john, what next… “wheelie bin police”… watch this space !
p.s. a message to council executives, managers etc. we are on your case.. you can no longer hide behind your massive salaries, get your asses on this site and defend yourselves.
p.p.s. Ohhh dear, our MP’s expenses have appeared on the front page of our local paper. I dont know what is worse, there fiddling, or the salary that our chief executive “earns”.. i wonder what expenses he claims… thanks to the freedom of information act and technology all will be revealed in time, but maybe there will be lots more “fred the shreds’”