Unrest in the ranks at cabs for hire free-for-all
Ian Craig
PLANS to scrap restrictions on the number of black cabs in Manchester - and other cities - and allow a free-for-all came under fire from MPs today.
Manchester has around 850 hackney cabs and the council issues only 20 new licences a year.
But the Office of Fair Trading says there should be no limit on numbers and that councils should be stripped of control.
But the Commons Transport Committee said the proposals - being considered by the government - were "sloppy" and should be thrown out.
It believed that increasing black cabs would reduce the number of private-hire vehicles as drivers grabbed new plates.
If that happened, said Manchester MP Graham Stringer, a committee member, many people, including night workers, would be hit hard because they relied on private hire.
He gave as an example people in Hulme or Fallowfield who could not flag down black cabs. Cleaners working early hours would often club together and order a private-hire car.
"The proposals would damage the access of the poorest people in Manchester to private hire and would seriously damage the hackney carriage trade," said Mr Stringer.
"Our committee has concluded that the OFT was driven by ideological free market considerations, not by evidence on the needs of the travelling public.
"The committee said they liked the system of controlled increases in the number of taxi cabs which operates in Manchester."
Evidence
The committee said today: "We would need strong arguments before we were convinced that local authorities' powers should be over-ridden.
"Our investigation has convinced us that the OFT study is partial, doctrinaire, sloppily conducted and does not provide sufficient evidence."
Mr Stringer said that OFT officials who gave evidence to the committee were given a rough ride. "I've rarely seen professional witnesses so poor and unable to justify their case to a committee. They were humiliated," he said.
The OFT says scrapping curbs on the number of cabs would reduce waiting times for taxis, there would be more taxis per head and consumers would have a bigger choice.
Witnesses from both Manchester and Liverpool said the reduction in private hire vehicles was one of the strongest reasons for opposing deregulation.
The move is also opposed by the North Western Taxi Association, which includes the GMB and TGWU unions.
The Office of Fair Trading is recommending that the government lift the restrictions on the numbers of taxis in towns and cities, and remove from local authorities their powers to put the lid on the numbers.
But it accepts that driver and vehicle standards have to be regulated, usually by the local authority.
The M.E.N. reported recently that hundreds of nightclubbers were having difficulty finding taxis in the early hours.
The Oldham Street area plays host to up to 240,000 revellers at the weekends and many have to trawl the streets to get a taxi home. Some bogus cabbies prey on clubbers to rip them off, rob or attack them.
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Unrest in the ranks at cabs for hire free-for-all
PLANS to scrap restrictions on the number of black cabs in Manchester - and other cities - and allow a free-for-all came under fire from MPs today.
