The applicant council complained that the respondent council was issuing a disproportionately high number of taxi licences, believing that it should only refuse a licence where the driver appeared to be unfit.
Held: The purpose of the licensing system was to ensure safety. Where taxi fleets operated substantially outside their licensing authority, the supervision necessary to ensure safety was weakened. The defendant had argued that the Acts did not give them power to refuse licences in this way, but that argument arose from a misunderstanding. The nature of the licensing system was local in character, with public safety in mind, and the local authority should therefore take into account the location where the taxi was to operate, and on this basis there was no need for the discretion which the respondent said it needed, but in any event it did have that discretion. In determining whether to grant a licence under the said section 37 a licensing authority may require an applicant to submit information pursuant to section 57 Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 in order to ascertain the intended usage of the vehicle.
Christopher Symons QC J
[2008] EWHC 2369 (Admin)
Bailii
Transport Act 1985, Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1976 46(1)(e), Town Police Clauses Act 1847 37
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Brentwood Borough Council v Gladen Admn 28-Oct-2004
The defendant taxi operator was telephoned, and cabs were booked, and those bookings were fulfilled by providing licensed hackney carriages with licensed hackney carriage drivers. He was accused of knowingly operating the vehicles as private hire . .
Cited – Britain v ABC Cabs (Camberley) Ltd QBD 1981
A hackney carriage had been booked, in the district where it was licensed, to pick up a fare in another district. The prosecutor said that when and where the fare was picked up the hackney carriage had no relevant private hire licence and no . .
Cited – Kingston Upon Hull City Council v Wilson QBD 29-Jun-1995
The grant to an individual of a hackney licence in one local authority, does not stop the grant of a similar licence elsewhere. Though the court applied the ABC case, Buxton J rejected an argument that a vehicle was not a private hire vehicle for . .
Cited – Hawkins v Edwards 1901
. .
Cited – Yates v Gates 1970
. .
Cited – Benson v Boyce Admn 20-Jan-1997
‘Looking at the other subsections of section 46, the first applies to a proprietor of a vehicle who uses or permits it to be used in a controlled district as a private hire vehicle without having a licence for it as such under section 48. The phrase . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Licensing, Transport, Local Government
Updated: 11 November 2021; Ref: scu.277550