Quote: In a landmark judgement given by Deputy District Judge B Dhaliwal in Milton Keynes Magistrates’ Court on 12 July, 71 Appellants who held hackney carriage licences prior to delimitation in Milton Keynes have retained the right to keep and renew their existing licences for saloon and MPV hackney carriages, as well as the right to provide rear loading wheelchair accessible vehicles.
Milton Keynes Council had set out conditions of licence for hackney carriage licence holder in such a way that the 78 original licence holders who were licensed prior to delimitation (which took place in March 2002) had to change to non-rear loading, M1 Whole European Approval wheelchair accessible vehicles by the 1st April 2007, or they would lose their existing licences. A total of 71 of the 78 licence holders instructed the National Association to appeal the decision, and that appeal was heard last month. Evidence presented by both the Appellants and the Respondents included the Department for Transport Best Practice Guidance, the EU Ministers’ document “Improving Access to Taxis” produced by the European Conference of Ministers of Transport, and the Draft document entitled “Disability Discrimination and Transport:
A Practical Guide for Taxi and Private Hire Services” produced by the Disability Rights Commission, all of which have set out the benefits of a mixed hackney carriage fleet - for both able bodied and disabled passengers. Evidence was also given in the Magistrates’ Court by several disabled persons, who explained their reasons why they were unable to use the wheelchair accessible vehicles as required by the council.
They maintained that if the council had consulted with disabled groups prior to taking their decisions, they would have arrived at a different outcome.
The Deputy District Judge, in making her judgement, considered two major factors: the amount of consultation undertaken by a local authority in imposing these types of vehicle licensing conditions; and the ability of that local authority to show a demonstrable need for a 100 per cent wheelchair accessible hackney fleet.
In her judgement, she found no evidence to substantiate that either of these factors had been proven on the part of Milton Keynes Council; therefore she decreed that the conditions were not reasonably necessary. What this means in real terms is that Milton Keynes currently licenses 142 hackney carriages, of which 68 are wheelchair accessible vehicles. The outcome of this case retains a balance of hackney vehicles, to include saloons and MPVs, and the potential for the 71 Appellants to license rear-loading wheelchair accessible vehicles if they wish. This is the situation at the time of going to press with this issue; we will provide any updates in subsequent issues.
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