Taxi drivers from across Leeds have protested outside the city’s Civic Hall, as controversial changes to the way they’re regulated move closer to being passed.
Under proposals, drivers with nine points or more on their licence will face potential bans, down from the current threshold of 12.
At a meeting on Tuesday, Leeds City Council’s licensing committee agreed to recommend the rule change be approved. The council’s executive board, made up of the most senior councillors, is expected to rubberstamp the decision next month.
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The move, which stems from Department for Transport (DfT) guidance issued to all local authorities, has been bitterly opposed by cabbies in Leeds, who claim it will punish good drivers and force more people away from the trade. One trade union said last month that passengers will be waiting “two or three hours” for a taxi next year if the changes are passed, such is the shortage of drivers they predict.
But speaking at Tuesday’s meeting, Andrew White, the council’s taxi and private hire licensing manager, said: “80 per cent of drivers don’t have any points on their licence, possibly they never will have.
“But the focus of regulation has to be on the small minority that pose the higher risk. We’re trying to make the public feel safe.”
Disagreeing with Conservative councillor Neil Buckley that the changes were a “solution in search of a problem”, Mr White said: “As a city we do have a high number of fatal accidents. If you are speeding and involved in a crash it’s far more likely to be a fatal accident.”
A public consultation over the changes found 94 per cent of cabbies were against the move, but a majority of the public backed making the rules stricter.
The proposals have been watered down from their original format, which would have seen drivers with seven or more points facing possible bans. Now, cabbies with seven or eight points will be asked to attend training sessions.
Those with nine points may have their licence revoked, if they’ve already been forced to attend training sessions in the past, though the council says each case will be judged on its merits and any sanctions will take account of the severity of the offences, among other factors.
Drivers had demonstrated peacefully outside the Civic Hall before the meeting started and many later streamed inside to watch the committee meeting from the public gallery.
The committee heard that “compelling” reasons would have to be given to the government for not following the DfT’s guidance.
But despite councillors being told that the guidance was driven by evidence that it would make the public safer, no such evidence was actually put before the committee.
Liberal Democrat councillor Ryk Downes said: “One thing I find difficult about this is we’ve been given national guidance to implement at a local level.
“I’d have thought something like this would be implemented by the government and then we’d all know where we are. It’s regrettable the government hasn’t made this mandatory.”
It also emerged that the council’s own staff employed to drive vulnerable children around the city would not be subject to the same rules, because they are regulated in a different way.
Speaking afterwards, Javid Akhtar, runs local private hire firm City Cabs said: “We’re not happy with the decision. It’s just going to put people out of work. We should be held to the same standards as everyone else and treated like everyone else, including the council’s own employees.”
Councillors voted by a majority of six to zero in favour of the plans, although the remaining four members of the committee all abstained.
At the meeting’s close, Labour councillor for Moortown Sharon Hamilton, who voted in favour of the changes, claimed she’d been “threatened” by members of the trade with losing her seat if she backed the proposals.
She said: “I voted with a clear conscience. I’ve read the papers and I’ve listened to the questions.
“I voted that way because I believed it was the right thing to do. I’ve been threatened by members of the public and drivers, saying that they will ensure I won’t be re-elected.”
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