• Labour calls for urgent review and moratorium on payment of increased fees
• Local taxi firms may seek to be licensed outside Rugby

Rugby’s Labour Councillors are challenging Tory-led Rugby Borough Council’s new policy to increase Taxi Licensing Fees by a substantial amount.

Conservative Councillors proposed the fees hike at the July meeting of Rugby Borough Council (RBC), claiming that there had been a full consultation exercise and that the intention was for the changes to be “cost neutral”. Rugby’s Labour Councillors challenged the policy in the Council chamber over the scale of the increase and for the potential negative impact it would have on the town. 

Since then, numerous Rugby taxi drivers and their local trade body have contacted Labour Councillors to express their concerns. Objections to the current policy include that it can take up to 9 months for a driver application and that RBC requires vehicles to be less than 3 years old at the time of application. The drivers say that there has been virtually zero consultation with their professional local trade body for four years. They are concerned that the costs for a new private hire driver licensed through other local authorities being approximately £340 while the cost in Rugby is now nearly £1,200. Drivers are also concerned about the limited notice given of the planned price increase, with increases demanded from 1 August following the Full Council meeting on 26 July, and the rigid payment terms being insisted on by the Council.

As a result, several of the town’s major taxi firms (Call a Car, Dial a Cab, People Express and Webb Ellis Cars) are committing to transferring their Private Hire licensing engagement from Rugby Borough Council to appropriate alternative local authorities for all new driver and vehicle applications with immediate effect and for all renewals as and when they become due. A majority of the smaller single vehicle operators are taking a similar approach. 

Labour Councillor for Admirals and Cawston, Cllr Michael Moran, is leading the party’s campaign against the changes and has tabled a Notice of Motion to be heard at the next Full Council meeting on 21 September. Cllr Moran said: “Given the valid and deep concerns that Rugby’s taxi drivers have expressed to my Labour colleagues and me, I’m calling on the Council to hold an urgent, immediate review of this ill-conceived, shoddily-implemented policy, and for payment of new licence fees to be suspended pending the results.” 

He continued: “If the Council presses ahead, real economic harm will be suffered by the local taxi trade, a trade that is vital to Rugby’s economy, particularly our night-time economy. Rugby’s taxi drivers play an important, often unsung role supporting the community and particularly vulnerable people or those with limited financial resources, through driving residents on school runs, hospital trips or managing journeys to the supermarket for those without cars. It is unacceptable for the Tory-run Council to change the dynamics of a whole sector of the local economy without consulting the drivers themselves. Through the review, we must work with our local businesses to ensure Rugby retains a viable taxi trade.” 

Cllr John Slinger, (Labour, New Bilton Ward) who is seconding Cllr Moran’s Motion before the Council, said: “Just as with the four-point plan for the revival of Rugby town centre that he led on earlier this year, Cllr Moran is showing that Labour’s approach is to work with businesses to build solutions. It’s staggering that the Tories, who claim to be the party of business, have shown such blatant disregard for a key sector in Rugby’s economy. I’m delighted to be supporting my colleague, a local businessman and community activist, as he demonstrates again that Rugby’s 

Conservatives are incompetent and that Labour, not they are on the side of Rugby’s taxi drivers and local businesses. 

Cllr Moran will be speaking to his Notice of Motion at Full Council on 21 September and will be setting out Labour’s alternative policy ideas. The motion will be published on the Council website.