Almost two years ago Taxi Leaks broke the news that Sir Peter Hendy had taken it upon himself to suspend the issuing of temporary licenses to drivers waiting for renewals. We warned at that time drivers would be unable to work.
Taxi leaks editor wrote to Sir Peter on many occasions asking him to reconsider. But Hendy was adamant, temporary licenses (TLs) were going and drivers would have to lose work.
Taxi Leaks have run many campaigns asking for the reinstatement of TLs
In March 2014 Taxi Leaks wrote to Hendy pointing out the Transport Act 1985 sec17(7) and Hendy said his legal team would look at it and get back to us.
With their usual contempt for the plight of Taxi drivers thrown out of work, unable to make a living, TfL never got back till September 30th 2014.
Leon Daniels replied on behalf of Hendy saying that they agreed drivers could carry on working under the Transport Act, but only if a completed DBS criminal record check had been received by TfL.
This was a none victory as it was the BDS backlog and holdup that was causing the problem.
We have never taken our foot off the gas over this issue, we emailed every GLA member, every London MP and on numerous occasions we wrote to the Mayor. We've constantly tried to get all representative groups to take this up, but there seemed little interest.
At the last Mayors Question Time, Val Shawcross asked Boris to take action over the alleged 37,000 licence renewal back log and suggested the reinstatement of Temporary licenses as was the case for many decades.
After listening to Val Shawcross Boris said "that sounds like an immensely positive idea I will immediately take steps to ask TfL to start reissuing temporary licenses".
Unfortunately as soon as he had left the auditorium, his view of an immensely positive idea completely changed
It's just one piece of bullshit after another!
Meanwhile drivers are still unable to work, still unable to make a living, still unable to feed their family.
It's not just drivers waiting for renewals, we are hearing horror stories from knowledge student who after taking 4 years to complete the KoL, they are being held back, waiting months for DBS checks before they can progress to receiving their badge. It's scandalous!
There is only one group who are taking direct action sighting this as one of the reasons their members were all balloted and voted (over 90%) to demonstrate.
If you care about the future of your trade, come to the Aldwych, 4:30 pm on Wednesday and make some noise.
The licence renewal scandal has finally started to hit the news (after nearly two years), as certain celebrities start showing their support the Licensed Taxi Trade.
The item below is taken from last nights ITV London News.
Unfortunately, when it came to the important bit....the statistics...ITV's researcher got it wrong...so we've fixed it for them.