Taxi Driver Online

Birmingham licensing bosses tighten controls on immigrant cab drivers


IMMIGRANTS and refugees arriving from war-torn countries will no longer have an easy ride into a career as taxi drivers in Birmingham under plans being considered by city licensing chiefs.

Councillors are responding to a sharp increase in private hire and hackney carriage license applications from people coming from abroad.

They are not happy that many cannot provide criminal record checks from their former home countries, forcing them to approve for work applicants who have given British citizenship or permission to stay on the back of a reference from a doctor, police officer or councillor.

Now members of the council’s licensing committee have proposed that those from what the authority termed “failed states” should spend at least five years living conviction-free in the UK before they will be given a licence.

All those who have spent time as an adult living or working abroad, whether British or foreign nationals, have to produce a Criminal Records Bureau report from their former country of residence to apply for a cab licence.

The committee also refused to delegate certain decisions to council officers, saying councillors should be the judges of whether a person is fit to drive a cab or not.

Coun Bruce Lines (Con, Bartley Green) said: “I am not happy about this delegating power. It seems that if you have left an aggressive regime you can be here for five minutes and get a licence.”

Coun Barbara Dring (Lab, Oscott) added: “There seem to be an awful lot of these coming to our sub-committees lately. “ I wonder if people know they only need a reference and their licence will get a rubber stamp. We have got to be more robust, there has to be another way of checking backgrounds.”

The idea for the five-year policy came from Coun Nigel Dawkins (Con, Bournville) who said: “There is no evidence available from these states. Perhaps they should have five years of good behaviour in this country before we consider them.”

The committee agreed officers should investigate whether such a policy would meet with human rights legislation.

source: http://www.birminghammail.net/news/

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Thats refreshing.

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Maybe they should do this but people have a right to be safe when travelling in a taxi/ph and if it means having to wait before you become a taxi/ph driver then so be it

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

The London Minicab trade would collapse if this rule came into force.

They've taken to raiding Romanian Orphanages for their next intake of drivers.

At least they get nice houses

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/164583/Romanians-steal-man-s-home

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Well perhaps London should be encouraged to implement such safety measures to protect the travelling public

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

And some not so nice ones;

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/posts/view/127113/Migrants-found-living-in-family-tree-house-/

MIGRANTS FOUND LIVING IN FAMILY TREE HOUSE


SQUATTERS have set up a tree house after invading the gardens of family homes.

They have constructed makeshift shelters and moved into sheds.

But police and the local council say they are powerless to remove them because it is a civil issue and residents must take the matter to court themselves.

The squatters, some of whom are jobless migrant workers from eastern Europe, moved into the gardens at Peter- borough, Cambs, five months ago.

Residents claim they eat and sleep there, swig alcohol and defecate in the open air, just yards from their back doors.

They also accumulate piles of rubbish.

Furious Ian Treasure, 41, said a man from the Czech Republic is living in his coalshed and will not leave. He fumed: “The area has become overrun and it is disgusting.

“The worst thing is that nobody is doing anything about it. It just gets worse.

“It all started in November. I was looking out the window and I saw a mattress in my shed. It turned out I had a lodger there.

“The police’s hands are tied. All they can do is move them on. They would be back so it would be a waste of time.

“But, if they were in the gardens of Buckingham Palace, the police would act!”

Fellow resident Ricky Smith, 23, said he had tried to remove a squatter in his own shed after he defecated on his lawn.

But a Peterborough City Council spokesman said: “This is not our responsibility.

“Because it’s private land residents need to get a solicitor and take these people to court to get them removed.”

A Cambridgeshire police spokesman said: “Anybody is allowed to use reasonable force to stop people trespassing and get them off their property, much like a bouncer in a pub or club.

“If there is some sort of confrontation we can step in and prevent a breach of the peace. But we cannot act directly against the trespassers.”

Peterborough’s MP, Stewart Jackson, yesterday accused the Government of failing to deal with issues that have led to the number of immigrants without jobs.

He said: “They were warned that uncontrolled immigration would cause these sorts of problems. They have ignored Peterborough’s needs.

“They must act to pressure other EU countries to fulfil their obligations to their own citizens.”

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

We have. We're called licensed Taxis driven by CRB checked drivers who can speak English and have spent 3 years gaining the right to ply for hire.

The drop puts and impoted labour make up the opposition.

That's as maybe but you will not see a monopoly for your trade. Therefore would it not make sense to encourage London to adopt a tougher stance with regard to the PH element of the trade in London?

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

Easy innit.

Make them do the knowledge. Make them speak in English.

They won't though.

Besides, every time their industry hits the news for the 78th attack that year, it's less custom for them.

IMO, and of course I know in your eyes it doesn't count for much, I think the way the system is in London is wrong. You can either do an extremely difficult knowledge test or you can do no knowledge test at all and put the public at risk.

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

The public have a choice.

The Knowledge isn't difficult, it's street names, direction, and places of interest. It commands commitment and dedication (plus a DSA and w'chair test) so its hardly rocket science.

I agree the public do have a choice. I think the problem occurs when the public are drunk and make wrong decisions and that's when the council should have already stepped in to protect them. I also think that your knowledge test would be more difficult to learn than my knowledge test, if for no other reason the the sheer size of London and the amount of streets and places of interest that people may like to go to

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

A miracle.

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IDFIMH

The London public may have a choice in inner London between licensed PH and licensed taxis, but in the outer areas they don't.

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IDFIMH