UP to 100 jobs in Glasgow are at risk after councillors refused permission for new wheelchair accessible taxis to operate in the city.

John Paton and Son, Scotland's main dealership in London-style black cabs, were told people carrier-style vehicles could be mistaken for private hire cars.

With Patons, once owned by the late Rangers chairman John Paton and now run by his son William, set to lose the franchise to sell traditional LTI hackneys next July, the decision has placed the future of the company's Glasgow operations at risk.


William Paton said: "As this decision prevents a substitute vehicle we intended to sell being licensed in Glasgow, it puts the future of 100 members of staff in the city in jeopardy. "

At the same meeting, councillors approved a similar vehicle for use by the private hire trade, including Network Private Hire, which has been in the spotlight recently after being tipped to win a £2million contract from the city's health board despite police objections.

Network, which once had its offices raided by police investigating links with organised crime, intends putting 60 wheelchair accessible VW Caddy Maxi Life cars on the road.

The private hire firm insists all drivers would be trained in how to use the new vehicles and help disabled passengers.

At an often tense meeting of the council's licensing committee, William Paton made the case for a specially-adapted Mercedes Vito to be added to the list of approved vehicles which are permitted to operate as taxis and private hire cars in Glasgow. He said London, Manchester and Birmingham approved the vehicles and pointed out dozens of similar taxis already operated as black cabs in Glasgow.

But the council wants to keep a distinction between the private hire and taxi trades to prevent private hire drivers illegally picking up passengers in the street.

The committee voted against licensing the Mercedes Vito on the grounds passengers could be misled as to which category it was.

Councillor William O'Rourke, who chaired the meeting, said: "I happened to vote in favour of the applicant but unfortunately it didn't go that way in the end."

The committee voted against licensing the Mercedes Vito on the grounds passengers could be misled as to which category it was.

Working to Glasgow Councils rules in Carlisle we wouldn't have a single PHV.

CC

Im just a bit slow here tonight but how do you work that one out? I thought it was just the Taxi guys that glasgow were dictating vehicle types to..would that affect PHVs?

The 76 act down here states...

All well and good CC but if they're licencing one type of vehicle and not the other it seems a little suspicious to me. I mean how the hell do you mistake a Mercedes Vito people carrier for a BH and how is a VW Caddy so much different that it can't be mistaken for a BH.

I think they're being unreasonable or someone's palm has been well and truly greased.

Working to Glasgow Councils rules in Carlisle we wouldn't have a single PHV.

CC

It's not just Glasgow CC either; Patons was more or less held to ransom by the hack trade in Glasgow a while ago. They offered to build something called a ScotCab which was a PH-WAV. The hack trade threatened to boycott them if they did and they had to climb down or lose all the hack business.