Taxi Driver Online

Keighley taxis (CCTV hit by delay)

10:10am Sunday 28th March 2010

A Keighley private hire firm says it is waiting for action by Bradford Council to help it fund security measures for its cars.

Bradford’s regulatory and appeals committee amended its regulations at the end of 2007 to allow the district’s taxis to display advertising logos and slogans.

Taxi and private hire companies which do this must use the money they make from the advertising to pay for security cameras.

The campaign in favour of advertising gained momentum following the murder of Keighley taxi driver Mahmood Ahmed, in April 2006. He was killed by a passenger, who then took his money and left his body in a ditch in Oakworth.

Stuart Hastings, director of Metro Keighley Private Hire, in North Street, said limits on where adverts can be placed on his cars have stalled efforts to prevent similar crimes. He said his business currently has cameras in only 15 of its 85 vehicles.

He said: “More than two years ago the council accepted we could advertise on our vehicles, but said we could not have the adverts on the front driver and passenger doors.

“We’re only allowed to advertise on the back doors and back wings of the cars.

“For us this is a non-starter, because we need to be able to use the whole side of each vehicle to be able to sell enough advertising space. It’s costing our business £120,000 to get the new security equipment we need and we want to raise that without putting up fares.

He said he understood the Bradford Council committee which deals with private hire issues is due to decide on an amendment which would allow adverts to be displayed more prominently. However, he said he did not know when this decision would be made.

The plans have previously won the backing of Keighley police officers and Bradford Council leader Councillor Kris Hopkins.

Responding to Mr Hastings, Martin Hamer, Bradford Council’s principal officer of fleet management, said: “We are currently working with both hackney carriage and private hire drivers to make it easier for drivers to maximise income from advertising to finance CCTV in their cars. Draft documents will soon be sent out to drivers for consultation.”

Source; http://www.keighleynews.co.uk/news/5081 ... _by_delay/

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