Taxi Driver Online

Byelaws.

A district council may make byelaws, in respect of hackney carriages for all or any of the following purposes:

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(1) for regulating the conduct of the proprietors and drivers of such vehicles in their several employments, and for determining whether such drivers should wear any and what badges, and for regulating the hours within which they may exercise their calling5;
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(2) for regulating the manner in which the number of each carriage, corresponding with the number of its licence, is to be displayed6;
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(3) for regulating the number of persons to be carried by such hackney carriages, and in what manner such number is to be shown on such carriage, and what number of horses or other animals is to draw the same, and the placing of check strings to the carriages, and the holding of the same by the driver, and how such hackney carriages are to be furnished or provided;
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(4) for fixing the stands of such hackney carriages and the distance which they may be compelled to take passengers not exceeding the prescribed distance;
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(5) for fixing the rates or fares, as well for time as distance, to be paid for such hackney carriages within the "prescribed distance," and for securing the due publication of such fares;
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(6) for securing the safe custody and redelivery of any property accidentally left in such vehicles, and for fixing the charges to be made in respect of it.

12 s 68; Town Police Clauses Act 1889 s 6. As to the conduct of proprietors and drivers see Blackpool Local Board of Health v Bennett (1859) 4 H & N 127 (plying for hire at forbidden place); Mackenzie v Somerville (1900) 3 F 4, Ct of Sess (loitering); Murphy v Neilson (1901) 3 F 77, Ct of Sess (loitering); Derham v Strickland (1911) 104 LT 820, DC (touting); Dunning v Maher (1912) 106 LT 846, DC (provision of taximeter lamps).
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People have sometimes questioned the validity of certain byelaws. The following test should always be applied.

Validity of byelaws generally.

Four elements are essential to the validity of a byelaw:

(1) it must be within the powers of the local authority which makes it;

(2) it must not be repugnant to the law of England;

(3) it must be certain and positive in its terms; and

(4) it must be reasonable.

If a byelaw can be divided into separate and distinct parts it may be upheld in part even, if the rest is bad.

A byelaw ceases to be operative upon the repeal of the statute under which it was made unless it is preserved by the repealing statute.

A byelaw which has not been enforced for a long period may nevertheless be relied on in civil proceedings.
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Meaning of 'byelaw'.

A byelaw has been said to be an ordinance affecting the public, or some portion of the public, imposed by some authority clothed with statutory powers, ordering something to be done or not to be done, and accompanied by some sanction or penalty for its non-observance. Further, it involves the consequence that, if validly made, it has the force of law within the sphere of its legitimate operation. Byelaws are instruments in the nature of local enactments and are thus within the definition of local statutory provisions, whether made under a public general or a local Act.

Byelaws must not be repugnant to the general law.

A byelaw is invalid if it is repugnant to the general law of England. It is not bad merely because it deals with something with which the general law does not deal, or because it makes unlawful something which the general law does not make unlawful, or if it adds something which is not inconsistent with the general law, but it must not, expressly or by necessary implication, profess to alter the general law by making something unlawful which the general law makes lawful, or vice versa, or by adding something inconsistent with the provisions of a statute creating the same offence, or by depriving a defendant of a defence he would have under the general law. A byelaw adds something to the general law, but it must not be contrary to or inconsistent with it.

A byelaw is not necessarily inconsistent with the general law merely because it is more stringent or more detailed in its demands. Where a statute requires in an offence a particular element, that element must, it seems, be present also in a corresponding offence under byelaws, and a penalty imposed by statute for an offence may not be increased by byelaw.
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Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

If a bye law offence of say soiling your cab happens, will it be any good quoting a bye law in a Small Claims Court. If it is quotable, will a Small Claims Court of law enforce it.

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

I'm not sure you need quote it in a small claims court, as clearly you have suffered a loss by someone messing up your motor.

All you need to prove is that you suffered a loss, by a receipt and/or loss of earnings, and the person who did it is the person you are claiming against.

The bylaw issue isn't really an issue.

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IDFIMH