Berwick/Northumberland situation: Questions Answered

David Wilson | Nov 03, 2009 | Comments 0

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The Following comment, by David Wilson, answers some questions about the Berwick situation.

Original Thread: Northumberland Hackney Carriage Intention of use Update

Your guess might be as good as mine, but this is a combination of what I know and what I guess. I’ll try to make clear what is fact and what is guess!

Fact: At the meeting of Licensing and Regulatory Committee on 19 October 2009, the draft policy was approved in principle, but is not to be adopted and implemented until they have determined linked and associated policies.

Fact: Phil Soderquest, Public Safety and Enforcement Manager, stated that officers were working on the harmonisation of application criteria and licence conditions across the six zones, which he hopes, following consultation, will be presented to the Meeting of Council in April 2010. There will be “grandfather rights” or some form of “transitional arrangements” for those currently licensed, so full harmonisation may take several years.

Fact: Councillors recognised that if they were to determine applications now, they might refuse licences, which they would have granted, if Northumberland had abolished the zones, because there are vehicles that predominantly work in Northumberland, but not in the Berwick zone.

Fact: Councillors, sitting as the Licensing and Regulatory Committee, want to consider and decide whether to retain or abolish the zones, before adopting the intended use policy.

Fact: As part of deciding on the future of zones, the Council is going to have to decide whether to retain the capped numbers in the Blyth and Wansbeck zones and / or whether to restrict numbers for all zones or the single area, if they abolish the zones. If they wish to retain / introduce a cap on numbers, that is going to be a time consuming and expesnive process.

Opinion: I doubt any progress before June next year, but more likely not before October or even later next year!

can i just ask as to why we still have a number of berwick plated vehicles running around, some with expired dates, and some with no expiry date whatsoever.

why have these guys not got northumberland plates?

if they are appealing to keep there plates, who is dealing with them and when is there likely to be a verdict.

who are responsible for these berwick plates left now that berwick no longer exists?

are these the guys that David calims may live in berwick caravan park?

I answered most of these questions at 2.45pm today, in response to your original questions.

For completeness, I’ll answer all here:

1) See my response to your earlier post.

2) As for expired plates, I can only speculate as to what the position may be – they may have expired, meaning they’re being used illegally; or they may have applied to renew and haven’t yet been issued with a “new Berwick plate without an expiry date”, but are entitled to continue to trade as they have applied to renew.

3) See my response to your earlier post.

4) No-one is appealing against any decision, because Northumberland says no decisions have been made. At the meeting of Northumberland’s Licensing and Regulatory Committee on 19 October 2009, Phil Soderquest, Public Safety and Enforcement Manager, said that for logistical reasons, the Council was going to renew all applications outstanding from November last year, but refuse to determine renewal applications from November 2009 until the intended use policy had been adopted.

5) Northumberland County Council is the licensing authority. See my response to your earlier post with regard to “reputational risk management” and why it might suit Northumberland to leave the perception of this as still being a Berwick issue.

6) I never said Berwick Caravan Park. As it happens, I can’t think of a single driver who has a caravan there. I said within the Borough; and I said only a few – off the top of my head, I can think of three! I guess the answer to your question is “no”.

7) Northumberland County Council is the licensing authority – and they alone have the power of suspension and revocation of licences. The council for the area in which any criminal offence is committed may prosecute, as may the police. Northumberland may (or may not) have the power to prosecute, depending upon the offence and the statutory provisions under which a prosecution is brought.

I appreciate everyone’s desire to know what’s happening; and whilst I’m prepared to shed as much light as I can on what I know, I am not the Council.
Original Thread: Northumberland Hackney Carriage Intention of use Update

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