David finally gets hackney carriage licence after 28 years (From York Press)

David finally gets hackney carriage licence after 28 years

10:23am Monday 7th July 2008 in News By Haydn Lewis, haydn.lewis@thepress.co.uk

Taxi driver David Broxup who is to get one of the new taxi licences

A 28-YEAR wait is over for a York man who has finally got a hackney carriage licence.

Earlier this year, The Press reported that City of York Council moved to cut waiting times at York cab ranks by voting to grant 15 new licences for taxis.

One of that number is 58-year-old Clifton man, David Broxup, who for the last 23 years has worked for Ebor Taxis, and wanted to drive one of the black hackney carriages.

He said: “I never thought this would happen, because for the last two or three years the council has been undecided whether they need any more hackneys and not giving out the plates, but now they have been away and got a company to do a survey and the result is they have issued these 15 plates so there is obviously the demand out there.

“The advantage to having a Hackney plate is that you can work from the city ranks and pick people up in the street as opposed to private hire where the customer orders the car.”

Mr Broxup is now looking to trade in his Nissan Primera and get a black hackney carriage complete with the City of York livery on the side.

The number of hackney cabs in York is set to increase from 158 to 173, with a further two licences to be released every six months until a further review is carried out in three years.

Alan Rowley, secretary of York Taxi Association, has said the impact on existing cab drivers would be “devastating”.

He said: “There isn’t enough work for us now and I’m very worried about the future.

“Some of us will go under.”

Mr Rowley told the council meeting in May how cab drivers had already been hit badly by the expense of newer, liveried cars and rising fuel costs.

But the consultants Halcrow, who conducted the York taxi survey, insisted there was a need for at least 15 new hackney cabs.

They interviewed hundreds of drivers, passengers and other concerned parties during their review and found the average waiting time for a hackney cab was 2.78 minutes – more than one minute worse than the national average of 1.14 minutes.