I READ with interest Peter Boulton’s letter re the council not renewing Uber’s taxi licence (The Press, December 18).

However, I can take his letter up a notch from that.

What dismays me is why did City of York Council licensing authority grant Uber a licence in the first place?

The list of countries and cities worldwide, including London, who have either banned them or suspended their licence is too long to name in these columns, but it stretches from China to Australia and India to Alaska.

Bulgaria shut Uber down in 2015, declaring that only registered carriers could provide taxi services. Italy, Denmark and Hungary all banned them in 2017.

Their fare structure is also open to question.

Someone going from York to Easingwold at noon on Monday will probably pay a different fare than doing the same trip at midnight on a Saturday.

There was the case of a lady doctor who was quoted £117 for a fare which cost £30-plus with another private hire company.

Local knowledge is also very important when hiring a taxi. It was surely common sense that drivers coming in from London, Scotland or West Yorkshire would not have the local knowledge that local drivers who went through a Knowledge test would have.

W Harrison, St Oswalds Road, York