Taxi Driver Online

Birmingham licensing chief issues warning over taxi plans

Birmingham Mail
May 12 2012

Government plans to open up the taxi and minicab market could lead to chaos on the streets of Birmingham it has been claimed.

Proposals to bring hackney carriage and private hire licensing up to date include banning moratoriums on local licenses, allowing black cabs registered in one borough to work in another, and removing the knowledge test.

There has been a moratorium in Birmingham since 2010 when a limit of 1,400 black cabs was set – a decision taken to end the nightmare of cars queuing at the busiest ranks such as New Street Station.

Birmingham’s head of licensing Chris Neville said he was concerned at the plan to lift the moratorium.

He said: “The queues at New Street were ridiculously long, running right round to the Alexandra Theatre.

“The city centre ranks are always busy. We also get problems on Broad Street at the weekend, there is aggressive competition for customers.”

He added that lifting those local limits would likely encourage cabs to target the busiest areas at peak times increasing congestion, double parking and raising safety problems.

The council would also likely be opposed to scrapping the knowledge test – at present all black cab drivers have to prove that they know their way around the city. But it would welcome national safety standards for licensed vehicles and drivers to prevent the problem of minicab drivers being licensed in less restrictive boroughs working in Birmingham.

The proposals are out to consultation until August, after which a law will be finalised and put to Parliament ready for introduction in 2014.

The Government argues that it wants to simplify the laws, some of which have been unaltered since the 1830s.

A spokesman for the Birmingham and Solihull Taxi Association said they would need to thoroughly check the proposals and discuss them with members. But in the past they have backed the moratorium, as it protects the trade for existing drivers, and support the knowledge test as raising standards of drivers.

Source; Read More http://www.birminghammail.net/news/top- ... z1ueJ9li8O

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Brummie Cabbie.

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
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Chris Neville is always worth doubling up!!

He talks some real sense - on many tiopics.

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Brummie Cabbie.

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It's all a bit.......


The postman had to stand in for the Doctor at the hospital today and every one died.


Lets hope more LO's speak up and they can't be dismissed out of hand like we are as they are neutral in it and have no agenda's

So he has read and digested the report in full, and all he goes on about is limiting numbers.

Oh and moaning about the taxi knowledge being binned when no-one has mentioned it.

Bit pathetic I would say.

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IDFIMH

In your view perhaps.

But hey, is Chris Neville going to get a more responsive hearing from the Law Commission or are you, or me for that matter?

I know who I would have my money on!!

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Brummie Cabbie.

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He might be heard, but if he is talking bollocks then I'm not sure he will do his cause much good.

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IDFIMH

And limiting PH vehicle numbers - as he suggested - ain't gonna happen in a million years.

Indeed the very fact that he's suggested that perhaps suggests he's overreached himself already and to that extent they'll take him less seriously than if his opposition was more measured and realistic.

He will have fully read and digested the whole document and more importantly the Impact Assessment document [in a seperate PDF file and probably as important if not more important than the Consultaion Paper] before he and the others met with the Law Commission.

Clearly with the consultation having only started on Thursday, 10th May with the publication of the Consultation Paper, none of us including CN have read the document fully and he was probably mis-quoted in the newspaper artcile anyway, as most newspaper article tend to do.

I am reading the Impact Assessment before the Consultation Paper and am finding it quite interesting looking for glaring errors and omissions.

I believe that if the Impact Assessment can be shown to have errors or omissions, there is more scope to challenge via that route than arguinmg about the Consultation Paper.

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Brummie Cabbie.

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It's a consultation and he and anyone else can say, write and communicate what they like, especially as there is clear evidence in Birmingham to support his viewpoint.

In a democratic consultation 'overreaching' oneself as you put it, does not render comments irrelevant or less valid. Indeed radical yet true comments [as pertain to Birmingham] such as these may have the opposite effect to what you believe and generate exploration in depth from the Law Commission.

The fact that you believe his comments may render him being taken less seriously is irrelevant in a democratic consultation.

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Brummie Cabbie.

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I think that by saying the answer to Birmingham's woes are limiting PH is evidence that he really doesn't know what he is talking about. It's just chav talk.

The number of hackneys is the same as it was when all those queues and congestion were happening, yet with restrictions everything is now ticker-tee-boo.

But to comment just on the limits issue, and something that hasn't been proposed (binning taxi knowledge), in a report that deals with dozens and dozens of very important issues, is simply not good enough.

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IDFIMH

Meanwhile, back in the real world...

It's all the dirty world of politics at the end of the day, and limiting PH was never on the agenda, won't be on the agenda and never will be.

They'll still listen to him, but anyone responding with impractical, improbable and indeed impossible suggestions will do the rest of their case no good, from where I'm standing at least.

And if you're saying he hasn't even read and digested the document yet - as indeed the article seems to suggest - then a kneejerk reaction and sounding off in the press and on the radio won't do his credibility much good at all.

Limiting numbers is the big issue [not the Big Issue] in the consultation.

From an economic perspective, the trade's probelms are directly linked to this issue, as economic stability in the trade would create a plateau from which the problems of the trade can be solved.

Without that stability, there will be no resolution to the trade's vast problems.

These problems will multiply and become totally unmanageable.

And as for tougher enforcement, that won't happen to any extent until we have dedicated full time regiments of enforcement officers work 24/7, which is a total pipe-dream.

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Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

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Disagree with other members' views;
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Personally I think the biggest problem that faces the taxis is the private hire if it's opened up any more than it already is. Area after area will be flooded by vehicles driven by people who have no idea where they are going for peanuts in vehicles that Noah throw away ffs

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

For 25% of England and Wales maybe, but for 100% it should be the cross border issue.

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IDFIMH