Jasbar wrote:
So how does this sit with the requirement that licensing is not for profit and fees should only cover the cost of licensing?
LAs don't have the legal authority to raise money from licensing, any form of licensing.
Indeed, some years ago a surplus built up in Edinburgh's taxi licensing which the council repaid to licence holders through a restriction in fees.
Dougie's aspiration of a medallion system is a non-starter.
Well the point is that in essence there's no difference between what Reggie calls a medallion system in the USA and what we call restricted numbers here. A medallion is just the US version of a plate, and if we used the term 'plate system' to describe what happens in cities like Edinburgh and Manchester then that would be cause confusion, because all licensing authorities in the UK use plates.
'Medallion system' is thus just confusing matters, in the same way that 'deregulation' should more accurately be called derestriction or delimitation of taxi numbers, because that's what's normally meant by the term deregulation in the taxi context.
Thus what Reggie more accurately wants is the New York variation on the restricted numbers gig, whereby new issues are sold by the issuing authority at around the market rate.
Of course, the reason Reggie thinks this is a good idea is because he knows such a system in Edinburgh would legitimise restricted numbers, helped along by reference to helping 'community projects', or whatever, and thus set restricted numbers in stone, rather than the creaking edifice that's currently in situ.
By the same token, he knows that CEC wouldn't issue too many plates under such a system, because that would dilute the revenues, so it would be win-win for Reggie - restricted numbers becomes legitimised and set in stone, and the threat of derestriction would recede, plus the council wouldn't issue too many plates, thus incumbent plate holders would suffer only slightly, but even any slight diminution in plate values would be worth it to eliminate the risk of the plug being pulled.
Same with this idea of issuing unlimited plates at the current going rate. Er, wouldn't this mean that no one would want a new plate?
Anyway, this would require a change in the legislation, but to that extent that might thrust a whole can of worms into the public domain, so perhaps Reggie should be careful what he wishes for.
On the other hand, in principle it's perhaps not that far-fetched. For example, a few years ago the Westminster Govt raised billions by selling of restricted access to the 3G spectrum, and selling off taxi plates in a restricted market wouldn't really be a whole lot different.
Pretty unlikely, however, but given the pressures on the public purse that will become increasingly evident in the next few years then who knows what will happen?
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