Council costs South Wootton driver his job claim
UNREST continues among cabbies in Lynn over West Norfolk Council's alleged failure to stick to its own rules with one driver claiming it has put him out of work.
Self-employed private hire driver David Clark, from South Wootton, lost his source of income last week when the council's licensing panel refused his application to register a 2003 Vauxhall Vectra with 80,500 miles on the clock to replace his licensed 2001 Peugeot 406 which is now mechanically unsound.
Yet it recently licensed five private hire vehicles for another operator all falling well outside the under one-year-old and less than 15,000 miles first registration condition, including a four-year-old Ford Mondeo which had covered 170,000 miles, he claimed.
Mr Clark, who is bringing up a teenage son and daughter on his own and renting their home, said: "This has put me on the dole. I'm desperately trying to see if I can borrow a car to get back on the road."
He said the Vauxhall was turned down because his Peugeot had not been declared an insurance write-off and the panel expected him to get it repaired.
"But it's mechanically unsound and the garage told me it's not worth spending the money on the Peugeot.
"It would cost about 2,000 to fix it and it would be cheaper to put down a deposit on a new car – but I can't afford it," he said.
Taxi boss Michael Jackson, of King's Lynn Airport Services, said he was "asked on the quiet" by the council to resubmit his application for a first registration for a four-year-old vehicle, with 59,000 miles, which had been previously refused.
He filled in another application form he had been sent – but last Tuesday it was turned down again by the panel because it did not comply with the policy.
He said: "None of us in the taxi trade are happy about this situation.
"People are being put out of business and I think it's wrong."
Cabinet member for community David Harwood said some drivers had found a loophole to use in the council's policy on taxis.
Different councillors sat on the appeals board and, with each case looked at on its own merits, they agreed with some and disagreed with others.
"We have looked at best practice and guidelines and we will be changing the policy to consider the safety of passengers above everything else because that's what the Government say we have to do," he said.
"The taxi trade should be a lot happier then because the rules will be the same for everybody and we will apply it equally."
lynnnews.co.uk
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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