Loughborough Cabbies In Court Victory Over Council Suspension
July 23 2009
Three taxi drivers who were suspended after they refused to pay £120 to take a multiple choice test have taken Charnwood Borough Council to court and won.
Charnwood Taxis drivers Zaher Zamani, Pyrarali Zamani and Martin Thornber had their licences suspended by Charnwood Borough Council for refusing to take a BTEC course after the authority made it mandatory for the authority’s 400 plus licensed drivers in February this year.
Under current rules imposed by the council, all cabbies in Charnwood must pay £120 to attend 12 weeks of evening classes, which finish with a multiple choice test for a level 2 BTEC qualification.
But at a hearing at Loughborough Magistrates’ Court on July 16, a judge ruled that suspending the drivers for refusing to take the course was unreasonable and ordered the council to pay the trio £5,713.55 in costs.
Mr Thornber said: “The judge found there wasn’t a reasonable cause for us to be suspended.
“As drivers, all we ask is that we are treated fairly by the licensing department - but we don’t feel we have been.”
Zaher Zamani said: “We’re sorry that it came to this. It wasted a lot of time and taxpayers’ money for something which is not necessary.
“Being experienced taxi drivers for more than 30 years, there is nothing in the course which would make us better people - the £120 would have been a waste of money.”
Solicitor David Leigh, who represented the drivers, ridiculed the multiple choice questions on the course, adding: “There was an entire evening on the carriage of parcels by taxi - something that could be taught in all of 30 seconds.
“One has to wonder what the council were thinking - I don’t think they bothered to even look what was being taught."
“One might speculate that the only people to gain anything out of it were the course organisers.”
A spokesman for Charnwood Borough Council said: “The council’s policy is for all private hire and hackney carriage drivers licence holders to obtain the BTEC prior to the renewal of their three year licence, so all new applicants have three years to obtain the qualification, and all drivers who held their licence on January 1, 2006, had until December 31, 2008, to obtain the qualification.
“The council is considering the implications of this case in relation to administration of the policy but the policy itself was not questioned by the court.”
* If you want to take the test yourself, follow the quiz link on the Loughborough Echo website.
Source; LoughboroughEcho.net
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