Northumberland Taxi Consultation

This Berwick thing just won’t go away. We have had a Court case, Council meetings, meetings between neighbouring Councils, meetings between Licensing officers from neighbouring Councils, countless meetings and newspaper articles, protests from the Taxi trade in Newcastle and yet some 9 months after the Judgement by Mr. Christopher Symons Q.C. we are still in the same position.
Berwick plated cars are still running around as Taxis on Tyneside and elsewhere even though Berwick Council no longer exists.
Now Northumberland has put out a consultation paper, asking the drivers of all Taxis licensed by them to comment on the Draft policy. Northumberland Council want to know ‘how best to hand out new taxi licences’

Are they genuinely going to the trade and asking their view? Do councils ask for our views on every decision they make about taxi policy? (If they did we might all be a lot happier)

This questionnaire goes out to all Northumberland Hackney Carriage drivers, including the ones which work outside the County, their answers will be heavily weighted to favour them keeping things as they are, won’t they?

Does anybody think they should ask those of us who have been affected by the issue of Northumberland plates, to work in other areas, what we might think?

Maybe this is the way to finally put this thing to bed, maybe when every answer to every questionnaire has been scrutinised and there have been several more meetings to hammer out the final policy, maybe then Hackney Carriages licensed in Northumberland will work in Northumberland. Why is it so hard to work out? Throughout this country Hackney Carriages work in the area in which they are licensed, throughout the world Taxis work in the areas where they are licensed. If not why bother having a licensing policy for each Council. Why not have one Taxi licence throughout the Country? (There are actually people who would go for that) The truth is it would be impossible to police. As we have seen with Berwick, there have been drivers flouting the law safe in the knowledge that enforcement was 60 miles away up the road. Some are being and have been prosecuted but they are few and they have only been brought to book because local Hacks have made so much noise about them.

My Council writes to me intending to prosecute me for not having insurance cover, I call them and remind them that I sold the car 3 months ago. My Council writes to me warning me that I will have my licence suspended for not having an up to date fare table on display in my vehicle. I call them and remind them that on the two occasions I have been to collect them (six weeks after fare increase) they have not been delivered by the printers yet. My Council writes to me to inform me that I was seen driving without door decals being properly displayed. I call them and say I had just come out of the car wash. “OK but you have been warned” The list could go on but my point here is : these are all minor trivial matters which should of course be dealt with but when it comes to hundreds of Taxis running around another borough, when a Judge has said “ Aweh! Lads get yer act together and issue these licences with a bit common sense” and that’s what he said, in common Geordie parlance that’s what the man said, we are still sitting here watching them drive around, on the one hand taking work off the office cars who did everything properly, got licensed and badged up by their own Local Authority and on the other hand cruising around the City centre and the Coastal nightspots picking fares up wherever they can, taking work from legitimately licensed Hacks safe in the knowledge that it will be very unlikely that they will get caught. Meanwhile the Council starts to act like they are employed for a reason and starts sending out ‘Mystery Shoppers’ so the Private Hire start getting hammered, Hacks start getting parking tickets because they are not as busy as they used to be and so are sitting around a lot more. Berwick driver keeps on going, laughing all the way, untouchable, outside of the law because no one really knows what to do with him.
We have to admit it’s the way the world is now, well the U.K. anyway, you do everything properly and they will get you for something. You do everything wrong and nothing happens. Read any paper any day of the week and I guarantee you will find injustice, sometimes trivial sometimes shocking. I don’t need to spell it out, everyone reads the papers and the country, the law and the masters have all got it arse backward. This Berwick saga is but one small example.
I may be wrong , we shall see what the outcome of this consultation is but I’ll bet we will have Berwick plated cars with us through the Christmas period and well into the New Year.