Big rise in bids for Shropshire taxi badges
Saturday 10th September 2011, 11:30AM BST.
Hundreds of taxi drivers from the Black Country and Birmingham are bombarding Shropshire Council with applications to operate in the county – with the number of drivers’ badges 400 per cent up on last year.
But council chiefs today raised concerns that some applicants may not have a genuine intention to work in the county.
Officials fear they are using a loophole to apply through Shropshire and then operate elsewhere.
Figures today showed that between January and July this year Shropshire Council issued a total of 1,468 taxi-related licences compared to 357 during the same period in 2010.
Officials said that of the 684 pending, more than 95 per cent were from out-of-area applicants.
Applications included those for Hackney carriage licences, joint driver, private hire operator and private hire vehicle licences.
Karen Collier, service manager for the environmental health team at Shropshire Council, said: “There has been a 400 per cent increase in drivers’ badges issued between January to July 2011 compared to the same period last year.
“There is concern that an applicant based outside Shropshire might not have a genuine intention to ply for hire within a Shropshire zone but is applying for a Hackney carriage licence solely to take advantage elsewhere of a statutory exemption which allows them to take private hire bookings remotely from Shropshire.”
Now the council is set to use a draft policy to refuse out of area applications, unless the applicant can prove they intend to operate in the county.
By Russell Roberts
UK News
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Do I take it then that the cost of applying for a licence from Shropshire Council is a lot cheaper than in other areas ???
If this is the case, maybe the charges need to rise quickly – might help offset some of the drastic cost cutting going on at Shirehall – you never know …..
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I think that the price for any licence in shropshire is high, Telford and Birmingham it is higher but there are reasons for this i.e. area size, zones etc. If the enforcement and licencing team used the OFT for their hackney and private hire regulations and didn’t use their own take on the regulations then this exodus from telford and wrekin or birmingham would not happen. It’s nice to gain an extra 1000+ licence fees but it does nothing to help local drivers and costs to customers. Remember Mr Licence issuer, a Hackney can only be hailed not pre-booked, it can only operate within its own zone/area for either the outward and inward or both journeys, anything else is why there are private hire drivers and operators. These people have to keep records of every journey for a period of time and pay a premium for their licence. Whatever the gain is in vehicle or driver fees will be lost with private hire drivers becoming hackneys and stealing all the work from current hackney drivers for a one off meter fee rather than a yearly/3 yearly fee for double the cost of a new taxi meter. Get out in the real world and stop the touts, illegal airport services, bus companies who lost their right to do private hire work when the regulations changed 3 years ago and any tom dick and harry coming into the county to benefit from council errors not loop holes in the laws
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“Out-of-area” applicants.
i.e. drivers who can’t find their way to the boot without an A-Z, let alone round Shrewsbury and surrounding areas.
If they don’t live in the area, don’t give them a licence, and those that do, give them a version of “the knowledge”, maybe then there would be fewer problems with getting from place to place without giving the driver detailed directions, if, of course, said driver could understand our native tongue.
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I wonder how many of these applicants can speak the English?
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All of them when the quote you a fare, then when at the time comes to pay it has doubled they can not speak English
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