Comment Made By: Ollie Beak on Student Raped in Newcastle
Unfortunately this is still just the tip of the iceberg and proves once again that there is very strong justification for proper enforcement on the ranks between the hours of 12.00 a.m. and 6.00 a.m. Newcastle City Council absolutely needs to employ round the clock teams of highly trained personnel to effectively monitor a situation that is now largely out of control.
We will all take a great interest in the developments of this latest incident and if it turns out to have been an actual licensed taxi driver to blame we will prompt the council for a complete review of its current licensing policy as it stands. Furthermore, if it turns out to have been a driver of one of the ‘out of town’ licensed taxis, then we will expect that all future licenses granted by Northumberland are done so after the applicant has passed an enhanced CRB check.
As a further safeguard it would also be prudent for that council to make it compulsory for all their currently licensed drivers to undergo these checks. It is common knowledge that our trade is being used for all sorts of criminal activity due to the relative anonymity a perceived licensed taxi operates under.
It is for this reason and as a matter of urgency that the powers of enforcement should include the random stop and search of any hackney carriage or private hire vehicle.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
I am saddened to see that there are those out there who will try to make gain out of another’s tragedy and personal suffering – are there no depths to which some will not go?
For the reputation of the trade as a whole – hackney, including out of town, and private hire – it is to be hoped that the individual responsible is not a licensed member of the trade.
However, we will not know that unless someone is arrested, charged and ultimately convicted of an offence or offences.
Now, in relation to the issue of CRB checks, those licensed by Newcastle or North Tyneside might care to note that Berwick did (and Northumberland does for the Berwick zone) subject new applicants to an Enhanced CRB and every driver to an Enhanced CRB annually on the renewal of their licence. Berwick hackney carriage drivers are more stringently and regularly checked than almost every other licensed driver in the country.
If any licensed driver is responsible for this attack, it is a great shame that they managed to get a licence, but if there was nothing in their past to suggest a propensity to commit such an offence, how is anyone to know that person might present a risk to the public?
Perhaps members of the trade might spend less time trying to score points against another element of the trade, which the out of town hackneys are, whether you like it or not, and do more together to promote public safety.
@David Wilson, Sometimes you talk out of your backend David. I can live with you telling us that Berwick drivers are well checked but then you spoil it by saying that they are “more stringently and regularly checked than almost every other licensed driver in the country.” Then you go on about scoring points against other elements of the trade, that’s you doing a bit points scoring yourself. What’s wrong with people having their say about things that bother them and the Berwick thing does bother people.Members of the trade,in North Tyneside and in Newcastle, have spent a lot of time both on this site and with local authorities to promote public safety and it mostly falls on deaf ears. I myself have spoken many times to Alan Newton re:public safety and he has done nothing but pay lip service.
You are of the same ilk David, a born wordsmith, but ask any taxi driver who has put a good few years in if he or she has ever got anything out of licensing other than waffle. It’s frustrating, and so this site was born where people can let off steam….And..it’s here for everyone to say their bit…even you!
@Admin, Well said Admin.
I would argue that he talks out of his backend all of the time. I might just publish on this site every incident that has occurred involving the drivers he has licensed. Some of them are extremely distasteful and they all vary in degrees of severity such as the case where in one weekend alone five of them were sacked from the same office for charging Hackney Carriage rates.
If David Wilson wants to go head to head with me over this then good luck to him, he’s already part of a wider investigation in any case. If he tries to argue that this that or that never happened involving any of his drivers it is all very easily proven. Names, dates, and offices etc. it’s all on record.
He’s a very foolish man and he should leave all licensing matters to the appropriate bodies. The laws are there for a purpose and should not be circumvented by individuals such as him for personal gain.
We will endeavour at all times to protect the public safety and we will do it in spite of people like David Wilson.
By the looks of the photo in last nights paper the car involved was a small dark hatchback which eliminates it from being a taxi.
At the end of the day it is not the taxi trades fault when such a shocking thing like this happens.
Mr Wilson is right in when he says that people jump to the wrong conclusion and start blaming others who they dont agree with so to speak!
Heres a scenario fron two nights ago….
Waiting to pick up castle leazes,girl goes to a little private car nd asks if he is her taxi!!!!!and her friends come and tell her she is pizzed!!!.And thats before they hit the town????(obviously the car had no taxi signage on whatsoever)
Having said that everyone should be safe and i hope the asshole who commited this crime gets caught and gets his comeuppence.
Rant over
Dear Admin and Ollie Beak,
The point I was making (badly it seems) is that no-one, not even Ollie Beak, should assume that, because an incident of this nature has occurred, it has anything to do with a Berwick licensed driver.
Having made that accusation, I stated, as a fact, Berwick drivers are subjected to an annual Enhanced CRB check. That, I think is more regular than most. As for the use of the word “stringent”, I would say the frequency of checks – annually – is more stringent than most. I appreciate the word could (and probably was) read as meaning more, but I tend to believe that councils generally apply similar standards – based on the Home Office and Department for Transport guidance of 1992.
Ollie, I would have to be the fool you think I am, to suggest that no Berwick driver ever committed an offence, failed to comply with the conditions of their licence or acted in an inappropriate manner! As I think I acknowledged in my first response, people do get licensed when, with the benefit of hindsight, they would not be licensed, but that’s an inevitable consequence of determining applications on the basis of available information (and without the benefit of a crystal ball). Every council has revoked licences, because someone turned out not to be the person the council believed them to be when they granted them a licence. As a general rule, I’d say that is not a council’s fault, although there are bound to be exceptions to that rule.
David
PS: I am grateful to you, Smudger, for supporting my suggestion that the trade should not be ripping itself apart by blaming each other.
Hello David
Have you applied for the NT Licencing Officers Post?
If you have and are successful drop me a Hack Plate in the post!, no excuses David, you found the Post Box 600 times in Berwick!
Good Luck
Stephen
@Stephen Arthur,
Sorry, Stephen, but I haven’t applied; and won’t be doing so!
I’m sure that, if North Tyneside were to delimit, and you intended to use a hackney carriage to ply for hire in North Tyneside and / or were not intending to exclusively or predominantly use it “remotely” from North Tyneside for private hire purposes, any licensing officer would grant you a plate, so long as you were a fit and proper person and your vehicle met the minimum vehicle specification for a hackney carriage.
@David Wilson, Tell Stephen the real reason why you can’t apply for that North Tyneside licensing officer’s job. Or if you prefer we can wash your dirty linnen in public for you.
Be afraid, be very very afraid.
@Jabber The Hut,
I’m not aware of any reason why I couldn’t apply for the job, save for the contractual commitments I have to my clients who have subscribed to my services for 12 months.
If you think otherwise, you go for it, but if you stray into defamation, expect Admin to remove your posting.
If you want to contact me directly, I do not hide and may be emailed at david.wilson@a2zlicensing.co.uk
@David Wilson, You’re right they wouldn’t let me say it. Never mind I’m confident you will trip yourself up again.
So on behalf of the entire taxi trade take care.
Congratulations to the police for apprehending the rapist so quickly.
BUT…..
I was disappointed that DI Miley took it upon himself to dismiss the hackney carriage trade as a safe mode of transport during his interview with Smooth Radio. He advised the public to use taxis that are pre-booked. I have observed that many of the private hire cars do not even have a top sign or display door crests. Dozens and dozens of them still have their taxi plate lying on the parcel shelf in the back window in total breach of the taxi licensing regulations which state that the taxi plate must be securely fixed to the rear of the vehicle. This fact especially applies to the out of town taxis.
Does Inspector Miley think that all hackney taxi drivers are not to be trusted? I think our Forum members should challenge him about his statement, the reason he made it and to ask him to retract it and explain to the public that genuine licensed hackney carriages that work from ranks are also a very safe mode of transport.
In recent months it was the quick thinking and bravery of a Newcastle hackney driver who challenged a bogus taxi driver and prevented a young girl being subjected to a serious sexual assault.
The public can rest assured that in spite of the lack of vigilant enforcement in Newcastle the hackney drivers themselves take the public safety very seriously and will therefore continue to police ourselves as a matter of course.
Our repeated requests to the council for proper enforcement in the city remain.
@Lady Eleanor, Spot on Lady Eleanor I hope that police Inspector clarifies his statement to the public, he reiterated it in the Evening Chronicle as well. Maybe the private hire operators should give him royalties for advertising.
Let’s hope our representives can correct this.
You Know in a ideal world we should be dodging Enforcement Officers, remember when we were Kids and skiving off School you would dodge the Teacher, or work you would keep away from your workplace.
But it comes to something when People want to see the “Teachers” Enforcement!
Tonight I bidded for a Town Job, when I arrived a Berwick Driver was bartering with my Customers and trying to tout another Lass, he was saying get into my Taxi?, I am cheaper than those P*** Hacks and cheaper than this one, he put his rates up at 10pm (me), the lads who I was picking up, held out and got into my Car because they found him rude, and my workplace does a set fare for £11, he was offering £14!, what happened to the Lasses heading for Whitley Lodge I don’t know, probably in the capable hands of this idiot!.
Newcastle Enforcement need to come out for Santa!
Anyway down in sunny Shields a Berwick plated Mondeo estate has been double parked on Chirton Green for nearly 8 hours @ 03.45am with it’s hazards on, god help anyone trying to get to work who are trapped in this Terrace Street!, a sensible Driver would have pushed it to one side, but obviously Berwick Drivers can do what they like as usual, this is a slow Christmas so far and we could have done without these Nuggets that ceased to exist nearly a year ago!
@Jabber The Hut,
If you genuinely believe whatever it is you’ve heard, contact me directly and I’ll admit or deny it, as appropriate.
If I confirm that what you’ve heard is true, you will have my consent to publish the details here or anywhere else!
However, the good news is: the police have made an arrest and a Gateshead man is to appear before Newcastle Magistrates’’ Court tomorrow.