Taxi drivers ban councillors from cabs in row over tests

by ahmed Sun 13 Apr 2008 - 3:11

TAXI drivers have banned Labour councillors from their cars as a protest against a new advanced driving test. The Taxi Association of Sedgefield District (TASD) said new drivers in Sedgefield, County Durham, were the only ones in the area who have to sit the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) tests.

In April next year, Sedgefield Borough Council, along with six other district councils and Durham County Council, will merge into one authority. But association members said Sedgefield Borough Council has placed their operators at an unnecessary disadvantage and councillors have ignored the opportunity to "level the playing field".

Association chairman Ricky Matthews said the council's licensing committee could have revoked the decision on tests on April 2, but that Labour's majority on the committee pushed it through.

He said the decision to uphold the tests was wrong, and said: "They cannot admit that they have got it wrong. "The decision to keep the DSA test leaves the taxi proprietors of Sedgefield borough the only ones in Durham County who, upon entry of the new unitary authority, will be disadvantaged. It is because of this that we ask all Labour councillors not to use the licensed vehicles of Sedgefield borough.

"We feel the opportunity to do business with our competitors on a level playing field has been lost. "This will only exacerbate the problems the public are having finding a taxi service and proprietors are having in recruiting new staff."

Sedgefield has about 300 licensed taxis, two-thirds of which are association members. Mr Matthews said he hoped all members would uphold the decision, which was taken at a meeting on Wednesday night.

Colin Nelson, the Labour councillor and chairman of the licensing committee, said: "At the end of the day, the taxi drivers are entitled to welcome whoever they want into their cars, it is their business and it is their decision.

"As for the vote, I cannot go into the reasons an individual councillor might vote, but what I can say is it is an entirely democratic process."
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