10:40am Friday 28th May 2010
By Faye Dickson
TAXI drivers in Caerphilly lost their battle against an increase in licence fees.
But after the meeting, members of the Caerphilly County Borough Taxi Drivers Association (CCBTDA) vowed to continue fighting the council because they claim they are not receiving a fair service for their money due to a lack of ranks across the county borough.
They had objected to Caerphilly council’s proposed ten percent increase because they claimed the authority failed to provide an adequate breakdown of how they were charged compared with other licensed trades, including gambling and liquor.
But the council’s licensing committee voted to go ahead with the increase after council officers told the meeting they had provided sufficient financial information and that the process of licensing drivers cost more than the total income from fees.
The authority’s income from taxi fees for 2010/11 is estimated at £142,703 and the cost of licensing drivers is £213,419 - based on costs including staff, criminal record checks and vehicle inspection costs.
On June 1, the cost of private hire vehicle licences will rise from £227 to £250 and hackney carriages from £171 to £189.
The CCBTDA, which has 137 members, claims there is a severe lack of designated taxi spaces across the county borough - with almost 300 hackney carriage drivers competing for nine 24-hour spaces across the county borough.
This includes two in Blackwood and nine in Caerphilly, but none in towns like Risca and Newbridge.
Drivers say this causes problems because elderly and disabled people have trouble finding a taxi and revellers risk their safety by wandering the streets looking for cabs.
Secretary of CCBTDA David Miller said: "I find this totally unacceptable and also find it ridiculous that the authority is licensing more hackney vehicles when there is already a lack of spaces."
Tracey Gifford, who works for Bee Line Taxis, described Blackwood town centre as like “Piccadilly Circus”, because taxis cannot find spaces to pick people up from on busy nights.
"At least if you’re picking up on High Street where there’s CCTV and police about you know you’re safe, but if you’re forced to pick up in side streets and people start fighting over your taxi there could be trouble," she said.
The council said issues with taxi ranks were not linked to licensing fees and that the drivers’ requests needed to be balanced with the need for street parking, disabled parking and loading bays.
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