Taxi Driver Online

(...although it's not clear if the appeal relates to something other than the waiting time thing, but the grounds aren't disclosed in the article, because they don't seem to be in the public domain at this point.)

Didn't even bother reading this when it was first reported, but this is a bit more interesting

As many on here will know, the appeal to the traffic commissioner on council fare decisions is a peculiarly Scottish thing, written into the legislation up here

A few years ago there seemed to be a few of those reported on occasionally, but can't recall many in recent years.

Maybe that's a press reporting thing, but perhaps with lockdown delaying fare reviews and the like, then that could have been a factor...


Midlothian taxi fare increase suspended after appeal to UK Commissioner

https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/ed ... d-32817749

Midlothian Council said an 'unintentional error' in the new approved fees had seen waiting time charges changed from every 30 seconds to a minute sparking concern from taxi operators

Taxi fare increases in Midlothian have been suspended after operators appealed to the government over new fees approved by the council.

Midlothian councillors agreed to introduce increases of up to 20 percent after a review was held in September this year.

However a report due to be considered by elected members this week revealed there had been an ‘unintentional error’ in the new tariffs which changed the waiting time fees from every 30 seconds to 60 seconds, effectively reducing the amount charged from 50p a minute to 30p.

Members of the council’s general purposes committee met yesterday to decide how to deal with the error, but were told it was now out of their hands after taxi operators filed an appeal with the UK Government Traffic Commissioner.

The council’s Derek Oliver told the meeting: “There has been an appeal submitted to the traffic commissioner from the taxi core with regards to the new tariffs set by Midlothian Council. The traffic commissioner has notified us that it is in effect suspending the fare scale as published by the council.”

Midlothian Taxi Owner’s Association had urged the council to increase fares when it met in September after it was revealed a review of the current charges was long overdue.

The proposed new fares would have seen initial hire charges during the day go up to £3.50 from £3, with the evening charge going from £3.80 to £4.50 and festive holiday rates going from £4.50 to £5.

Additional time and distance charges of 25p go to 30p – a 20% increase, across all tariffs except at Christmas holidays when it remains at 40p.

A spokesperson for the traffic commissioner’s office confirmed an appeal had been lodged by three taxi operators in Midlothian against the council’s new tariff although details of the reasons for the appeal were not disclosed.

They said: “The council has been given until November 17 to respond to the appeals.”

Midlothian currently has 52 taxi plates available with 25 currently issued and 140 private hire cars operating in the council.

Don't know if there could be some sort of political point being made here, but the above might suggest to the casual reader that it's a UK-wide thing going on

However, although the traffic commissioner system is UK-wide, with regional commissioners, the taxi appeal thing relates only to fares under the Scottish taxi legislation, and the appeal is made to the Scottish-area traffic commissioner.

So readers of the Edinburgh Live website might be forgiven for thinking that tariffs set in Newcastle (say) can be appealed to the North east of England traffic commissioner, but that isn't the case.

Guessing there must be an interesting reason behind that.

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IDFIMH

Didn't notice that Sussex, and can't be bothered looking it up. But if I had to put money on it, I'd guess three letters would feature prominently - in alphabetical order, A, V and W

And the three biggest settlements - Dalkeith, Penicuik and Bonnyrigg - all from about 14,000 to 18,000 in terms of population, so probably not a huge amount of rank work in proportionate terms, and probably not a huge amount of WAV work in proportionate terms either...