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A FORMER Kidderminster taxi driver’s claim that Wyre Forest District Council could be breaking the law by allegedly making a profit from taxi licence fees has been rejected by a council chief.
John Turley, 41, a father-of-six, of Clarence Street, said that fees were rising steadily year by year and had become unfair and unreasonable.
Conservative, Marcus Hart, cabinet member for housing and environmental services, said, however, that the taxi licence fee only increased in line with inflation each year.
Mr Turley said that when he started driving a taxi in 1994, it cost £26 for a 12-month hackney carriage driver’s licence, whereas now it was £261 for two years.
He added that a hackney carriage vehicle licence was £100 a year in 1994 and was now £368 for the same period.
Mr Turley said that, according to the law, “a district council may demand and recover for the grant to any person of a licence to drive a hackney carriage, such a fee as they consider reasonable with a view to recovering the costs of issue and administration”.
He added: “The question is, what is reasonable? I, personally, think these fees are not reasonable and may be even illegal.
“After all, the fees are not meant to cover the cost of running a department - they are for issuing licences.
“The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check is only £36 at other councils, including Birmingham and London, so where is the other £19 going? Not a reasonable fee, surely?”
Mr Turley, who stopped driving a taxi at the end of July, said he had become fed up with parking illegally because there were too many taxis and not enough space on the ranks.
He added: “All taxi drivers are suffering. The main problem is the issuing of unlimited licences, combined with a limited amount of taxi space to ply for hire.”
Mr Hart said: "The taxi licence fee is set by the council but only increases in line with inflation each year on average by about three per cent.
“The aim is for the service to be cost neutral rather than for the council to make a profit from it - the fee is designed to cover the costs of administering the application.”
He added: “There is no limit on the number of taxi licences that the council can issue. This follows the council's response to an Office of Fair Trading report a number of years ago which sought to question those authorities that were still 'in regulation' i.e limited the issue of taxi licences.
“Wyre Forest could not justify that and embarked on a deregulation plan, which means there is no limit on the number of licences we can issue.
“What the council has done, though, as part of its deregulation plan is to ensure that it has a fleet of hackney carriages that are of very good quality and comfort and are accessible to all.”
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