Members of the gambling, licensing & regulatory committee of City of York Council voted by seven to three – with two abstentions – to deny Uber a renewed licence.
A huge cheer went up from taxi drivers gathered at the meeting as committee chair Helen Douglas said: “The licence stands refused.”
Council chiefs have refused to renew the Minicab-hailing company Uber's licence to operate in York.
Members of York Council's Gambling, Licensing and Regulatory Committee tonight debated for more than two hours over Uber Britannia Limited's application.
The company's current 12-month licence is due to expire on Christmas Eve.
Councillors concluded that the Minicab firm are not a fit and proper person - a required condition to refuse an application of its kind.
A spokesperson for York Council said: “The application by Uber Britannia Ltd to renew its private hire operator’s licence in York has been considered by City of York Council’s Gambling, Licensing and Regulatory Committee tonight.
“Applying the legislation, the committee has decided to refuse the application having concerns about a data breach currently under investigation and the number of complaints received."
Speaking after the meeting Neil McGonigle, general manager for Uber in York, said the company would now review the details of the decision.
It comes after Transport for London refused to renew Uber’s licence on the grounds of “public safety and security implications” in September.
The firm's appeal against that decision in London will be heard by Westminster Magistrates’ Court in Spring next year. Uber Britannia Limited can lodge an appeal with the Magistrates' Court over the latest decision by York Council.
Cllr Sonja Crisp tabled a motion to refuse the application on the basis of the data breach that affected the 57 million customers and drivers in 2016.
The second reason for refusal related to complaints made against the firm in York.
The decision is the latest blow to hit the taxi-hailing company, after Uber had its licence suspended in Sheffield this week.
The move came after the firm failed to respond to requests for information about its management.
Over half of all complaints to York Council regarding Taxi and Private Hire were against Uber Drivers!
Since December 2016, 296 complaints were made relating to hackney carriage and private hire vehicles or drivers in York up to November 22.
York Council said 155 of these complaints related to Uber vehicles or drivers.
But only four related to an Uber vehicle or driver licensed by the council - and 151 were made against those licensed by other local authorities, leading to councillors raising questions about the number of Uber drivers coming from outside York to work in the city.
Cllr Dave Taylor, a member of the committee, said during the meeting: "This city needs to have control of its taxi and Private Hire services and it needs to have a level playing field and I don't know if that means then national legislation needs to be tidied up.
"But I don't think that we can license a company which directs drivers to go around the houses, pumping up fair for customers, that tries to claim it has no liability for any claims, demands or losses, which claims to have a local office but never seems to staff it and the number of complaints against them is so high.
"I think those are the grounds on which we can refuse this licence."
Neil McGonigle, Uber Head of Cities, North of England, spoke in support of Uber at the meeting.
He revealed that some 28,000 have used the company's app in York in the last three months.
The meeting was told licenses for Uber to operate had been refused in Reading, North Tyneside and Cardiff, as well as London.
Saf Din, chair of the York Hackney Carriage Drivers Association, told the meeting: “Whilst York only has a handful of drivers licensed, Uber are doing what they are very good at – and that is systematically abusing the local laws and explicitly looking for loopholes by the use of out-of-town vehicles.
“Many have no knowledge of our city, lack of respect for our roads, illegally plying for hire on taxi ranks and breaking our traffic laws repeatedly.”
In their application, Uber said if it was not granted another licence they would still operate in York using drivers from elsewhere, said York private hire driver Wendy Loveday.
She told councillors: “Uber have totally proven that they cannot recruit York drivers, so have continued to encourage out-of-town drivers to come and work in York, running roughshod over our city, not caring about the consequences – and this is absolutely no reason whatsoever to relicence them.”
Jim Love, chairman of Fleetways Taxis, gave councillors examples of Uber journeys including
York station to Dunnington – should be 5.5 miles, Uber told driver to take a route of 10.1 miles
York station to Melrosegate – should be 3 miles, Uber route was 10 miles
Water End to Low Ousegate – should be 1.3 miles, Uber charged more than £60 for a £7 fare.
“If I told my drivers to go the wrong way round, we’d lose our licence,” Jim said.
TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT:
Letter to Simon Court
Legal Services
Brighton & Hove City Council
Dear Mr Court
As you will now be aware York Council has taken the decision not to renew the Uber York Operators Licence as the council considered it not to be ‘Fit and Proper’ to hold a such a licence.
This meeting was held in public with contributing parties in exactly the same way that the Brighton & Hove taxi/ph trade recently demanded but the council refused.
York Councillors were fully informed that there is currently a UK investigation but unlike Brighton & Hove Council it considered this matter to be of such high importance that a decision was made immediately.
Having watched the full meeting on a webcast we are not surprised that York has encountered the very same issues of Uber that we have also experience in Brighton & Hove.
However... putting those same issues aside the ultimate point was the recent data breach of Uber and specifically Uber taking over a year to report this to the relevant regulatory authorities and all of the 57 million Uber account holders of which it has been stated some 2.7 million are UK based.
High Standards
At every opportunity Brighton & Hove Council refers to the high standards expected of the trade and puts the ‘Blue Book’ on a pedestal as an example.,,, and such an example we are proud to be associated with.
However quite clearly York Council has now taken the lead in the high standards expected of its Operators and we are sorry to have to state this but the York position now makes the lack of action by Brighton & Hove council look foolish and weak in not calling back the Uber Brighton & Hove Operators licence for further review as the trade has previously requested.
If any Brighton & Hove licensed driver was accused of misconduct then we have no doubt that the council would jump on the driver for the protection of the public. However the impression that trade now has is that the council is actually afraid of Uber and will not take any action over the serious matter of not revealing the data breach and to be specific not stating this when it applied for the licence renewal.
Review the Uber Brighton & Hove Operators Licence
On this basis the GMB Brighton & Hove Taxi Section calls on the council for a second time to immediately review the Uber Brighton & Hove Operators Licence in respect of Uber not informing its account holders or the relevant regulatory authorities of the data breach in 2016 until some 12 months or so later after Uber had negotiated a payment in the region of $100,000 to the criminals who stole it.
If Brighton & Hove Council had such a serious data breach and did not immediately inform all parties affected we would expect at an absolute minimum the resignation of the person responsible on the basis of not being ‘Fit and Proper’ to hold such a position.
The council must without any delay take action to convene an extraordinary meeting to consider as to whether Uber is still ‘Fit and Proper’ to hold a Brighton & Hove Operators Licence.
GMB Email December 12 2017
I would also take the opportunity without any apology for repeating the contents of the email I sent you on December 12 2017 with reference to the GMB Submission Document with regards the Uber Brighton & Hove Operators Licence renewal.
This document was dated October 3 2017 and there were two sections that required a specific response from the council which has yet to be provided and it has now been over two months.
Those sections were:
Part 2: Questions for Brighton & Hove Council
Part 3: Questions to be submitted to Uber
A copy of that document is enclosed containing those questions is attached.
I would be grateful if you could let me know when the council will be providing a full response to those questions.
Finally we congratulate York on making the right decision.
Andrew Peters
Secretary
GMB Brighton & Hove Taxi Section
CC GMB Union – Brighton & Hove Licensing Committee – Trade members – Interested Parties
2 comments:
Uber said if it was not granted another licence they would still operate in York using drivers from elsewhere.
Looks like the Council made the correct decision,if the Council don't do what we want we'll do it anyway.
Contudo, é mostrada nos mecanismos de pesquisa.
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