Council pays out £11,000 to cabbies after losing multiple court cases

Three taxi drivers were awarded over £11,000 of taxpayers' money after Stoke-on-Trent council lost an appeal made by local cabbies at North Staffordshire Justice Centre. The cabbies appealed decisions made following meetings with Stoke-on-Trent City Council's licensing committee. The four court appeals included: 

• One taxi driver awarded £8,215 costs after the council refused his request to licence a saloon vehicle and no longer transport wheelchair users;

• One taxi driver awarded £1,262 costs after the council withdrew his licence for allegedly breaching conditions;

• One taxi driver awarded £1,800 costs after the council withdrew his licence following a conviction for child neglect;

• No costs awarded to a cabbie who got his licence back after being accused of sexual assault.

According to Stoke-on-Trent Live Vice-chairman Councillor Chris Robinson said: “If we had the full information in some cases we may have made a different decision." Dave Currie who stood as the Stoke-on-Trent representative on the National Private Hire Association said "The licensing panel changes every so often and when it gets new members they're like a child with a stick - they go around hitting things and tend to shoot from the hip. “There is only one set of people who can take plates off a driver and that's the magistrates, unless there is an extreme situation where a person has been driving dangerously."