Taxi Driver Online

Cough up, cabbies' is the message from Chichester District Council, after a range of increases in licence fees for taxis and private hire cars was approved by members.
Their main aim is to cover the authority's administration costs, and avoid them falling on council taxpayers.

And the licensing and enforcement committee was told that officers believed they were necessary to ensure the council was able to continue to maintain public safety.

Councillors heard the new charges still compared favourably with other authorities.

But there was criticism from some hackney carriage and private hire businesses.

One operator said he would have to pay £150 for both his hackney carriage and private hire badges. "That is totally unjustified – they are currently only £60 for both, so this is an increase of over 100 per cent," he added.

Chichester District Hackney Carriage Alliance said it had calculated the current cost to every hackney carriage proprietor for a driver and vehicle licence as £303.

Based on the twice-yearly mechanical testing regime, the overall licence fee would increase by £110 to £413.

A list of increases approved by the committee affects licence fees for taxis and hire cars, and for drivers and operators.

Assistant environmental health director Matthew China said officers had undertaken a full and thorough review of fees.

Under the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, councils could recover administration costs for drivers' licensing, and both administration and other costs, including enforcement and provision of stands, for vehicle licensing.

Net expenditure for licensing in the current year was £130,000, and historically the split between vehicles and drivers and operators was around 50-50. Mr China said there were about 250 private hire vehicles in the district, and 50 hackney carriages.

A suggestion to make the increases incremental to 'soften the blow' on the trade, was rejected in favour of the proposals recommended by officers.

http://www.midhurstandpetworth.co.uk/ne ... 6292358.jp

Can they not ask for a precise break down of the costs and how they have been calculated?

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

as it costs the same for a CRB or MOT anywhere across the country, and plates/plate holders cost the same, there shouldnt be any variation anywhere

I pay £80/yr for a PH ops licence that costs £1 to print off, and here a "meter check" for hackneys (or me if i fit one) is £32

at least dick turpin wore a mask

as i (as a PH) dont stand on a rank, should I have to contribute to thier upkeep?

Cough! Cough!

I suggest anyone licensed by Chichester asks the council what the processing/product costs of a driver's license is, and for an accurate breakdown of those costs.

If the costs are lower than the actual price of a driver's license, then the council is in breach of the 1976 act.

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IDFIMH

Toots said:


We have, they can’t (won’t) provide them – and they don’t care.
When asked last year we were told that all “tax” revenue went into the environmental health pot, and after we politely pointed out that this was illegal, they said that they would amend their accounting procedures for 2009-10 to put this right.

So how can they produce any accurate figures when the yearend figures have not been finalised yet?

Towag said:


Which is the exact noise I made when the vice around my scrotum was tightened once again by this uncaring and unrealistic council – they truely don not give a monkeys for anybody but themselves.
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which is why no-one will ever know.....

Our council charges similar fees and when challenged were able to produce accounts showing that taxi licensing runs at a loss ! The trouble is councils hide the cost of other things in with licensing

In relation to driver license fees the licensing departments expenditure is irrelevant.

The council, any council, can only recover the actual costs of processing someone's personal license i.e. the time taken to process it, and the actual cost of the product.

So if a license takes 30 minutes to process they should charge more than £40 a hour = £20, and the cost of the plastic and paper = £5.

In my view anything higher than that for a driver's license is in breach of the law.

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IDFIMH

when was it advertised in local paper

I would be interested to have details of any ‘best value’ comparison the council has carried out in respect of its licensing functions and how it compares with the authorities it may have used as a ‘benchmark’

By virtue of the Local Government Act 1999 the authority is required to carry out such comparison

I like this new caring style of democracy, those Robert Mugabe lessons in diplomacy obviously did wonders.

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin