The Summons

So I have had my summons to attend at Cotton Street towers for my appeal hearing against the Fixed Penalty issued under the Health and Social Care (Scotland) Act 2005. Looking forward to my chance to protest against the fine and if all else fails at least I have bought myself an extra month before it has to be paid. Will keep you updated.

Useful Meeting ? Aye right !

So in I went to the meeting full of hope, full of ideas, certain that the Cooncil man was going to have to listen to me and have to do something about the safety of the guys and girls it was happy to take money from to license them and it all began well.

I explained the circumstances of the two incidents I had been involved in since the turn of the year and Mr Cooncil Man wrote it all down, stopping me to allow him to catch up with his scribing. He then rather prudly announced that he had been looking into the issues raised in my email and had phoned Glasgow City Council and East Renfrewshire Council to find out what they were doing, and they didn't see the need to do anything.

I then cited examples of what various English councils and police forces were doing in order to improve safety for the drivers and the public to which a straight faced official responded "Aye but thats down in England". Sorry did I miss something, is the culture of our land so different that the border automatically removes the similarities between two guys doing the same job ?

So I pressed on, suggesting a Safety Awareness exhibition where the Council could invite suppliers of devices aimed at the Driver market and through a small fee cover all their costs thus giving Renfrewshire Cooncil a bit of credibility for no cost, and letting the drivers and public see that Renfrewshire was serious about the safety of its citizens and license payers. Silence was the deafening response.

So undeterred I pushed on with option two, a safety leaflet that could be put on the Cooncil website, and that of the Polis if they wanted, in the form of a PDF file. How much would this cost, the square root of hee haw, but again Silence.

It was at this stage that I informed the Enforcement Officer that I would most likely be handing back my plate and license as I was fed up with the lack of support from the Cooncil and Police. At this point he stopped even kidding on he was listening to me and began to try to rush me out the door advising me I probably had more important things to be doing, patronising c~~t. When I explained that even if I gave in my license this problem was still going to be faced by other drivers I was advised that "in the 10 years I have been here, since leaving the Police (surprise sur-f@@king-prise), I am only aware of 6 attacks on drivers."

Well if thats the case I have been unfortunate enough to be involved in 33.33% of these, and a further 33.33% have happened to drivers in the last 9 months (see your Paisley Daily Express for details of attacks in Gallowhill and Inchinnan on drivers from Paisley Cab Co) which leaves just 2 attacks in the prior 9 years and 3 months. Aye right.

Is that why numerous drivers have anti stab devices, don't work nights, don't pick up certain hires. Or is it that we all know the Council and the Police don't give a flying f@@k and just don't report it. I'll let you decide.

The Caring Cooncil

Well given that this was my third reported incident to Mill Street in 18 months and on all occasions I had given them either Reigistration numbers, name and phone number or name and address and they had not once done anything to follow up I decide to send a complaint to the Chief of Strathclyde Police and handed in a three page official complaint letter on 5th June to Pitt Street, still no reply.

After a bit of deliberation and still seething at the attitude of the police I decided that as the local Licensing Authority were responsible for licensing of Taxi and Private Hire cars and drivers I would find out what they were doing about driver safety. Having trawled the website and assorted paraphernalia I had received over the last 4 years from the enforcement team I drew a blank. An email was required :

Dear Sir / Madam

Please advise me as to what Renfrewshire Councils stance on safety of Private Hire and Taxi Drivers licenced by the authority is and what measures are being taken to improve driver safety.

The reason for my request is that as the holder of a Private Hire Operators Licence and Private Hire Drivers licence from Renfrewshire Council I am concerned as to my safety at work and no support or advice seems to be available from the council. It appears you are more interested in taking the money from licence holders and spot checking cars for cleanliness than working to improve safety for drivers.

In the past 6 months I have been the victim of two attacks and on both occasions have reported these to Mill Street Police Office and been extremely concerend by their lack of action and attitude to these crimes as being unavoidable, undetectable and just "part of the job".

Having extensivley checked the councils website and printed literature I can find no mention of any support or safety initiatives for drivers and operators.

I look forward to your swift response as after this most recent attack on Saturday lunchtime I am seriously considering returning my plate and giving up. Attacks are bad enough but to have no support from Police or Licencing Authority gives the perpetrators of these attacks the green light to carry on as they are and leave hard working, law abiding families to pick up the pieces.

I look forward to your response.

So within a day I had a response and things were looking positive :

I refer to the above matter and your email dated 4 June 2007 and note all
that you write.

I am extremely concerned to note that you have been the subject of two
attacks while working as a Private Hire Driver, and am very keen to discuss
with you how you can feel and be safer at work.

In order that I can address your concerns, please arrange to attend at the
Licensing Department at 2.00pm on Monday 11 June 2007 to see myself.


So I looked around the web, chatted on Taxi Driver websites and basically done a fair bit of research into what other Licensing Authorities and Police Forces were doing on this subject and off I went to the meeting, full of hope that the Council cared about the drivers and not just about the fees they charge for the licenses and putting drivers off the road for a few stray crumbs on the back seat of the car. But oh how wrong I was ........