Taxi Driver Online

THE MASTER OF THE ROLLS COURT

COURT 71

Before THE MASTER OF THE ROLLS

LORD JUSTICE BUXTON and

LORD JUSTICE SCOTT BAKER

Monday, 11th July, 2005

APPEAL

From The Queen's Bench Division
(Administrative Court and Divisional Court)

FINAL DECISIONS

The Queen on the application of Cummings v Cardiff County
Council.

Appeal of Claimant from the order of Mr. Justice Moses, dated
27th October 2004, filed 3rd November 2004.

Appeal denied.

After three appeals and two years of delaying tactics by Mr. Cummings the final appeal was today denied.

The appeal process has now been exhausted and Cardiff Council can finally get back to administering Taxi policy as they see fit not how Mr Cummings sees fit.

This website strives to bring you the latest news appertaining to the Taxi trade and yet again we are the only website on the Internet that has this breaking news about Cardiff. It is no wonder that no other online Trade website can compete with TDO.

Those councils who have a potential Cardiff on their hands will be well advised to heed the warnings that have emanated from this scenario.

Regards

JD

So Mr Loads of Plates has lost.

One has to wonder what sort of a trade this is when someone who has 50 odd plates gets the hump when he doesn't get anymore, following a SUD survey issue.

That person then takes the council to court to get a few more to add to his 50 odd. The council then decide that if distributing plates is such a problem, then they will solve it by de-limiting. Thus the ending of said problem.

Funniest thing is that the person who had/has most to lose over the de-limiting of plates in Cardiff, is the mush who has caused it.

Without doubt an honorary member of the 'TDO Hall of Fame'.

_________________
IDFIMH

SUSSEX.....ditto.....mrT ....

Wouldn't it be more fitting to put him in the TDO Rogues Gallery?

Regards

JD

Quite possibly JD, but let's face it he has done those that support an end to taxi quotas a big fat favour.

_________________
IDFIMH

so the bloke had a million pounds worth of plates
got greedy and now he has none.
oh dear what a shame.

WHAT'S 1 MILLION POUNDS WHEN YOU HAVE 5...............mrT

From my experience folk with money hate losing it, even if it's only a small % . I also think a lot of kudos would have been lost fighting this case, and maybe it's that that will hurt the most.

But I bet he isn't Mr Popular with the existing cab trade down there at the moment. If it wasn't for him then Cardiff would have had only a few more plates. Now they will have hundreds more.

God bless him.

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IDFIMH

Hello All
I have read with interest the remarks on the subject of de-limiting the taxi trade in Cardiff. I would like to point out that Cardiff Council paid for a survey which recommended the issue of six only plates, which would then meet the needs of the people of Cardiff, the survey also stated that I Quote:

" The removal of the limit on the number of hackney carriages would have a major impact on the service provision and it is clear from the consultants report that there is no clear benefits arising from the removal of the restriction"

The council chose to ignore this recommendation. Also there are some 480 hackney carriages in Cardiff, Carl only owns a few in comparison, so what about the rest, how will they all earn a living if there is no limit on the competition?

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Stay Safe Stay Lucky

Forgive me if I'm wrong but originally the council didn't ignore that recomendation, they adopted it.

The problem arose when the gent with many plates, didn't get any more. He challenged that decision, and that's what led to the council deciding to delimit.

In my honest opinion it's a bit rich Mr loads of plates getting the hump when he didn't get any more, and his actions have led to the current situation.

In short he is to blame. Bless him.

_________________
IDFIMH

I think it was the TGWU, NTA, NWTA, NTTG etc, etc, etc who said Councils are best placed to determine their own Taxi policy. That is obviously what Cardiff did in 2003. How they apply that policy may not be to everyone's liking but at least everyone will have the same opportunity, or is that something you wish to deny others.

In respect of plates, Cardiff council said Mr. Cummings has an interest in just over 12%, which works out at 58 licences. This number of plates might seem insignificant to some but I'm sure others might look on it as having a huge vested interest.

The majority of the comments on Cardiff have centred around the three court cases involving the two parties in question and have not to my knowledge touched upon the issue of how de limitation will effect the supply of Taxis in Cardiff.

I would like to point out that the vast majority of Wales is now de restricted therefore should we treat Cardiff as a special case or should we broaden the debate to encompass the rest of Wales?

Regards

JD

Did it never occur to you that if it wasn't for the misguided efforts and greed of Mr Cummings that Cardiff would still have a restricted numbers policy?

You say the Council chose to ignore the survey recommendations but in fact the reverse is the case.

Cardiff chose to issue six new licenses in line with the survey recommendations. When Mr Cummings realised the council's preferred method of allocation was by way of a lottery system restricted to one license per person or business that he realised if he was fortunate to have his name pulled out of the hat he would only be entitled to one license.

Mr Cummings wanted to retain the old criteria of issuing licenses because he believed and even stated in court that several of the business's he has an interest in, were top of the list.

Here is what the judge said in the appeal of 2004.

I accept that had it not been for the earlier decision in January and the challenge mounted by the claimant it is unlikely that the Committee would have ever turned to consider the question of de-restriction.

So you have Mr Cummings to thank for the change of policy and no one else.

Regards

JD

Hello JD
In part i agree with what you are saying, but at the end of the day Carl is a businessman and as such saw what he thought was a good business move, unfortunately for the rest of us it turned out to be the wrong move. I have no axe to grind as far as Carl is concerned, in fifteen years of taxi-ing in Cardiff i have only met him twice, so from an independent taxi drivers point of view de-limiting is both a financial and working environmental disaster. The population of Cardiff is approx 313,000 and has 480 taxi's plus over 1,000 private hire cars, (some of who work the streets on a friday and saturday nights,(these statistics were supplied by Cardiff Hackney Office)) also on a friday and saturday night Cardiff Bus run a cheap bus service from Westgate St to all parts of Cardiff from 11:00am - 3:00pm the customer base in Cardiff is not large enought to sustain an unlimited amount of Hackney Carriages and still enable the independant driver to survive, also what about the rest of the week when there's not enought work for the 480 taxi's + the private hire's. this means that most of the independent drivers would have to join a company to survive.
Question who owns one of the largest taxi companies, and many of the smaller ones?

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Stay Safe Stay Lucky

I agree that is a downside for cabs that only want to work the streets, and it would be ironic if the operators benefit.

But from what I've seen and read, it's the operators (in the main) that hate the idea of de-limitation. Most would rather PH stayed PH thus keeping them in business.

_________________
IDFIMH

You are right Sussex because on the really busy nights, a large amount of PH's work the streets from 11pm onwards, and not the companies books, so with the companies, the trade, the police and the survey's recommendations all against de-limiting, why does the licensing committee still intend to go down that road?

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Stay Safe Stay Lucky