Tory councillors attacked taxi drivers for refusing a move by Fenland District Council to allow them to implement new charges that could have seen fares for certain journeys rise by up to 50 per cent. The comments were made during a Cabinet meeting on Friday which heard that taxi drivers had overwhelmingly a council proposal that would have brought about the changes.
Cllr Sam Hoy, the portfolio holder for licensing, said that “personally I think it’s a mistake” that taxi drivers refused the increased fares offer.
Cabinet was reviewing fare changes following a licensing committee hearing in July which had recommended the new tariffs. The recommendation was put before Cabinet in October, but a decision was postponed to allow a more detailed consultation to take place.
“So, when we asked the drivers what they would like they came back approximately 33% wanted to be allowed to charge more and 66% against – this is roughly just from memory about 66% didn’t want to be allowed to charge more”.
The consultation attracted 62 responses from taxi drivers with 44 opposed to the increase, 17 in agreement and one described in council reports as “unclear”.
The council has 133 licensed vehicles split into 76 Hackney Carriage and 57 private hire.
The last table of fares were amended in 2022.
An earlier report to Cabinet stated: “To be clear the taxi trade can charge less than this amount if they would like to do so as the proposed charges are discretionary.
“The table of fares applies only to Hackney Carriage vehicles. Private hire operators can agree their hiring charges in advance with their customers at the time of booking the journey
“It is at the discretion of the council as the licensing authority to set a table of fares for licensed Hackney Carriages operating within the district if it chooses to do so.”
Cllr Hoy felt that some of the reasons for taxi drivers voting against an increase “might be they were worried that people won’t use them.
“I think that the advertisement of this and being told that fares are going to go up when they potentially wouldn’t anyway because people don’t have to charge these fares has probably done more to scare the public and put them off taxi use”.
She hoped that in future taxi drivers would question and think about their choices but since they had made up their minds she agreed the best result would be “to just leave the taxi tariffs as they are.
“And we don’t allow them to charge anymore, and we review it again in a year’s time
“Personally, I think it’s a mistake. I know some people have been saying online I’ve got some kind of interest in it. I have not. I don’t drive a taxi I don’t intend to drive a taxi “I’m not related to anyone that drives a taxi
“I think in a year’s time we’ll have very few if any Hackney drivers left. However, we did say we would listen to what people wanted and this is what people claimed to have wanted so that’s my proposal that we just keep the fares as they are, and we review it in a year’s time.”
Council leader Chris Boden said it was right the council listened “both to the general public particularly those who use taxis and that we also listen to the Hackney carriage trade itself, and it is really quite a fundamental point about local government that we don’t do things just off our own back.
Cllr Steve Tierney said: “This is such a sad situation.
“First of all, the whole thing has been lied about by various parties since the beginning over and over again those same parties have attempted to manipulate taxi drivers and the public by suggesting that we control the fares that taxi drivers charge which we do not.
“We only control the maximum fare, and nobody has to charge the maximum fare.
“Most fair and honest people know this is just misleading; it’s been deliberately misleading I think for political purposes, and I think such a sad mistake
“Most of the taxi drivers I know are very sensible hard working decent people but there are a few who seem to be led by councillor (David) Patrick boggles my mind why anybody would listen to what he says.
“He’s led them down a disastrous path which they will regret for a long time
“But we’ve listened to them, and it doesn’t affect us if we don’t raise the maximum level.”
He added: “They’ve made a big issue of it, so we won’t raise the maximum level, but I think they’ve just sign their death knell as a group. Personally, I think that they will gradually die away in favour of private cars and what a sad situation to be in.”
Cllr Ian Benney was in favour of de-regulation and questioned why councils had to set the maximum fare in the first place.
“It’s this big state interfering in private commerce – let taxis sort their own fee out”
Cllr Benney referred to an instance whereby his colleague Cllr Steve Count had said “you can’t get a taxi in March on a Sunday afternoon; it’s because taxi drivers don’t want to work on a Sunday afternoon or maybe there’s not enough taxi drivers on a Sunday afternoon,
“I think that if we deregulated the market and actually allowed taxis to charge what they want they should advertise before they ring so people know what they would be charged.
“I think that would be fair; they can advertise their own rates. Either they can be more competitive or if they want to charge more for something that’s up to them.
“Ford for us to be putting controls over what is a private business I personally see no need for an upper limit at all.
“And it would take the council out of all of the accusations of fixing things and wrongdoing and listening to people – let the people decide for themselves rather than have us decide for them what that maximum would be.”
Cllr Hoy added that “a lot of the taxi drivers are nervous about Uber coming to Fenland.
“I get that people want to have trade protectionism and if you’re in a job you want to protect your job I get that it’s just human nature its survival isn’t it it’s a basic human instinct
“But I think if you if you kind of push that too hard and you get blinkered by that survival Instinct there is someone out there that’s going to come in and they’re going to take your market from under you and so and you have to kind of be careful of that.”
She agreed with the council looking at opting out of the responsibility of setting taxi fares.
“I don’t know if it’s legally possible and what the implications of that are and how it might work because I do think it’s a very bizarre situation like you say that there even is a maximum limit set by a council for one type of driver,” Cllr Hoy said.
Background to the debate on taxi fare increases across Fenland
On October 11, the council sent out a letter to all licensed drivers explaining that Fenland ranked 289 out of 341 local authority areas, making it currently among the lowest in the country.
The letter claimed it was ‘inaccurate’ to say the proposed increases amounted to a rate per mile of £3.30, an increase of 50 per cent mile, and that Fenland tariff rate per mile would exceed almost all other councils in the country..
Instead, says the letter, the increased tariff would be mean:
1: 2 mile journey now £6.20 would rise to £7.50, a 20.9 per cent rise.
2: 5 mile journey, now £12.80. would rise to £17.40, a rise of 35.9 per cent
3: 20 mile journey, now £45.80 would rise to £74.90, a rise of 41.7 per cent
4: 30 mile journey, now £67.80 would rise to £99.99, a rise of 47.3 per cent
The council said this would be a maximum charge “and not what you have to charge”,
Fenland would rank 112th highest out of 338, rather than 289th, and 6th out of 9 neighbouring authorities.
Cllr Dave Patrick and a long standing unofficial spokesperson for the taxi trade, believes the council is not reflecting the true rates.
“Every district has a flag,” he said. “This is the start charge at the initial hiring.
“In Fenland it is £4.00 for the first mile. In Cambridge for the first 90 metres, it costs £3.65 and then the mileage rate kicks in.”
Cllr Patrick said: “Presently in Fenland once the flag distance of 1 mile has been reached the rate per mile is £2.20 which is charged in 1/11th increments at 20p.
“Fenland’s proposal increases the mile rate to £3.30 in 1/10th increments of 33p, with a flag of £4.20 as the starting point.
“So, while the first mile has only increased by 5% (the flag mile) every mile thereafter has increased by 50 per cent.”
He added: “In addition, when the vehicle happens to hit traffic or is stuck in a queue or waiting at traffic lights waiting time is also added to the fare.
“I cannot state enough that once you have travelled the first mile every mile thereafter has seen an increase of 50 per cent. Something Cllr Sam Hoy, as portfolio holder for licensing, fails to acknowledge.”
