Taxi Driver Online

Building up our complaint against the council fee charges.
From the accounts submitted by officers to committee last year it is clear not only do they have a small surplus and they also appear to have included costs for stances.

Further to that however they quote the Scottish Best Practice Guide 2012 and they have included costs for enforcement.
They did acknowledge English court cases and practices there are contrary to this.

On the basis that the enforcement of licences is principally for the benefit of the wider public and as such a case exists that licence applicants should not support this activity, i.e. that the fee charged should equate solely to the costs associated with acquiring a licence.

Anyone know anything about why or on what basis the SBPG 2012 opposes this view.?

Nothing to do with best practice. Read the CGSA where it states quite clearly what your licence fees are for.

"Fees for taxi and private hire car licences.

A licensing authority shall charge such fees in respect of taxi and private hire car licences and applications for such licences as may be resolved by them from time to time and shall seek to ensure that the total amount of such fees is sufficient to meet the expenses incurred by them in carrying out their functions under sections 10 to 23 (other than section 19) of this Act in relation to such licences."

The fees are to cover the testing of vehicles and drivers, and enforcement of licensing conditions. The licensing regime is self-financing only and cannot be used to generate a profit for the council to use for other purposes such as taxi marshals who have nothing to do with licensing but all to do with public order.

We are not here as a cash cow for any council.