This is the response from Dundee city council on why they continue to let a private hire firm illegally ply for hire in a yard across from two of dundee's night clubs.



As to the arrangements between Dundee Private Hire Limited and the various nightclubs in South Ward Road for making available private hire cars for the patrons of these establishments, whilst the matter is certainly far from free from doubt, the Council's position is that it is sufficient to comply with the terms of Section 21 of the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982. This section effectively states that there is no offence committed if the arrangements for the hire of the vehicle are made otherwise than directly with the driver in a public place. Assuming for the purposes of this matter that the yard at South Ward Road is a "public place" (defined in Section 133 of the 1982 Act as "any place to which the public have unrestricted access"), then the question which requires to be addressed is whether or not the arrangements for the hire of the vehicle are being made with customers from the nightclubs directly with the drivers or if the arrangements for the hire of the vehicle are regarded as being made by the nightclubs on behalf of their customers. I understand that this type of arrangement (effectively a "block booking" by the nightclubs) is not uncommon and a remarkably similar arrangement was recently the subject of an appeal to the High Court in England. This is the case of Blackpool Council R. (on the application of) -v- Black Tax Taxis Limited [2008] EWHC 2776 (Admin). Although this case was decided on other issues not related to the lawfulness of the block booking arrangement, the Court did say in passing that such block bookings "may be lawful", but did not say under what conditions they would be regarded as lawful. As you will no doubt be aware, it is the view of the taxi trade representatives that such arrangements are clearly unlawful and I would have thought that, were this to be the case, the Court in the Blackpool case would have had no difficulty in so pronouncing.

It is the view of Dundee City Council, as local Licensing Authority, that the only way that any definitive view will be obtained is if the matter ends up before the Sheriff Court.