Chopsy wrote:
Hi
I have been reading your forum with interest for a few weeks now and have been discussing the information I read here with my boyfriend who is a taxi driver in the Bath area. I have learnt much from the forums but didnt want to post before now as some of the barneys you guys have with each other scare the hell out of me.
As this latest thread involves a report from our local newspaper today I thought you would be interested to hear the latest. We expected some kind of meeting Monday (as mentioned on your list of restricted councils). We thought there was an executive decision expected in Bath on 21st Feb.
Once it became clear this was not happening, somebody emailed the office responsible for managing the Councillors calendar of meetings and they confirmed there was never a meeting scheduled for this day (maybe they cancelled it?)
The reference in the quota list said "Executive decision". That means the Executive is going to decide on the Government guidance on the date supplied by the Licensing officer, that being the 21 Feb. The meeting between the Executive Transport portfolio holder and the relevant licensing officer is an internal meeting and not open to the public. Once the Executive Transport Holder has reached a decision on future Hackney Carriage policy and that means addressing the Government guidance then those recommendations will go before the full executive on the likely date of March 2nd.
It will then be up to the full executive to make the decision, however that meeting on the 2nd of March is open to the public.
The fact that at last weeks licensing committee, plates were issued to all bar two of the existing applicants on the waiting list suggests to me two things. Either Bath are keeping a numbers policy and just issuing those plates to clear the waiting, list or they have decided to lift numbers control completely. The sting in the tail will be when the Executive announces their future policy on 2/3/05
So there you have it. I would take special notice of the quota list because it is extremely accurate. The applications for Hackney carriage licenses have been an item on the February 17th Licensing committee agenda for some time. They have now been resolved but I can assure you they had nothing whatsoever to do with the Government guidance. You therefore have more cause for concern than you think because if Bath change their policy to one of Quality control rather than quantity control, It might leave you worse off than you are at present.
Best wishes