More taxis for city

6:00pm Tuesday 11th September 2007

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IF YOU have ever had trouble flagging down a taxi in York fear not - councillors last night voted to increase their numbers in forthcoming years.

City of York Council's executive member for city strategy and advisory panel met in the Guildhall to discuss changes to the regulation of the taxi trade.

The council currently limits the number of hackney carriages - those that can pick up at ranks or can be hailed in the street - to 158.

The council does not limit the number of private hire cars on the city's roads.

Many local authorities have abolished caps on taxi numbers, allowing market forces to decide how many people enter the trade.

York is one of 30 per cent of councils not to deregulate the industry.

But central Government has put pressure on such local authorities to remove the restrictions, considering four options for the future:

• To maintain the existing limit on hackney carriage licences;
• To deregulate and thereby grant a taxi licence to anyone meeting the application criteria;
• To grant a number of new licences to meet the unmet demand;
• To grant a specific number of licences each year.

Councillors stopped short of full deregulation, opting for the last option, which was recommended by officers.

Alan Rowley, secretary of York Taxi Association, said: "Taxi deregulation, directly or by any other method, is not the best option for the city of York. In three words: It doesn't work.

"That's why the Government has not changed the law and has left the decision to local authorities."

He said many licensing authorities had found that although taxi numbers increase under deregulation, private hire car numbers decreased, meaning there was no guarantee that the total of the two combined would increase.

He said the move would not necessarily mean more taxis during the late night peak hours either.

He added: "There is no real evidence to show waiting times are lower in deregulated areas."

He said waiting times at York's busiest taxi rank, outside the train station, would be unaffected because the privately-owned rank, run by GNER, operated a cap of 160 taxis that are allowed to wait there.

"Further taxis would have to roam the streets of York, adding significantly to these numbers would surely be a backward step in terms of environmental issues," he said.

Last week, cabbies met to discuss the council's plans. Almost everyone in the trade is against deregulation. They endorsed the option chosen by councillors.

Coun Tracey Simpson-Laing, Labour's spokeswoman on city strategy, joined Coun Steve Galloway, the Lib Dem leader of the council, and Coun Ann Reid, the executive member for city strategy, in calling for an up-to-date survey on taxi usage at late night peak hours - as the most recent data available was for 2004 - to help guide the number of new licenses issued each year.

The issue will now be looked at by the council's licensing and regulatory committee in November.

Richard Haswell, the council's head of licensing, said new licenses could be issued in May as the old ones come up for renewal.