🟩 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐍𝐄𝐖𝐒: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐃𝐮𝐥𝐰𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐋𝐓𝐍 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞...𝐉𝐮𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐋𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐥.

Humiliation for Lambeth Council today as judge rules it must:

1. Tear down the West Dulwich LTN which it implemented unlawfully by ignoring residents’ legitimate concerns 

2. Pay campaigners' court costs (£35k)

3. The judge also blocked Lambeth from appealing 

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐋𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐋𝐓𝐍 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐨𝐧 𝐗.  ⬇️

High Court Quashes West Dulwich LTN With Immediate Effect – Lambeth Denied Right to Appeal and Now Faces Questions Over £1m in Fines

London, UK – The High Court has issued a landmark Order, immediately quashing the West Dulwich Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN), denying Lambeth Council permission to appeal and requiring the Council to pay £35,000 towards the legal costs incurred by the West Dulwich Action Group (WDAG).

The ruling opens the door to serious questions about the £1,080,580 at the last count in fines issued to residents and motorists since the scheme was introduced — money raised under what the Court has now declared to be unlawful.

This marks the first time local residents and businesses have successfully overturned an LTN through the High Court, setting a powerful precedent and raising significant implications for councils across the UK.

Source: John Stewart on X

𝐓𝐀𝐗𝐈 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐒 𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐑𝐀 𝐁𝐈𝐓:

There are now calls for Claire Holland to resign as the council leader, and many calling for Rezina Chowdhury to go as well. 

It will be interesting to see if Lambeth Council refunds the £1,080,580. 

Or will we have to see another case?

🟨 𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐊 𝐉𝐔𝐍𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍…𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓𝐒 𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐅𝐔𝐋𝐋 𝐀𝐂𝐂𝐄𝐒𝐒?

Has the CoL (City of London Council) forgotten its promise to give London’s licensed Taxis full access to the Bank Junction?

New Taxi Leaks has asked @Squarehighways a number of times on X (Twitter), "Could you please give the London Taxi trade a date, when we will be given back access to the bank junction?"

As yet, we haven’t had one reply, not one word!

Also our representative orgs and unions seen strangely quiet on this issue. 

But then look what our largest org did when the ITA organised protests at the Bank Junction...they emailed TfL and apologised for the "Loonies" causing the chaos. They then told us to desist from protesting, as they had a team working on a solution. 

We've never heard another word from them. 

𝐓𝐀𝐗𝐈 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐒 𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐑𝐀 𝐁𝐈𝐓:

We were promised full access in spring 2025, it is now summer 2025 and we still haven't heard a word. 

🟥 𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐥 𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐩 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐥𝐞𝐝𝐠𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐬.

Again, another instance of don’t let a good story get in the way of the truth. 

The Manchester Evening News posted a story with the headline:

Local 'knowledge test' for taxi drivers set to be scrapped in the Greater Manchester borough of Bury.

Drivers will no longer be required to answer 15 questions about road names and have to complete 2 journeys.

The reason given by the council is that with new technology, drivers don’t need to know the knowledge. 

They of course went with a photo of a line of Hackney TX4s and Vitos, used word such as, 'Taxi Drivers and Taxi Licence'…..

Yet reading through the article, it becomes quite apparent that they are actually referring to a Private Hire Licence, which they mention towards the end of the article. 

The council say that owing to cross boarder hiring, and drivers flooding the area with minicabs and drivers licensed in other boroughs, their revenue from licenses has fallen to an all time low!

Therefore they are scrapping the 'knowledge test', better known to us as the topographic test. 

See article, click this link: 

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/local-knowledge-test-taxi-drivers-27924091

𝐓𝐀𝐗𝐈 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐒 𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐑𝐀 𝐁𝐈𝐓: 

This is just another instance of lazy journalism, where the author hasn’t done enough research into an issue they obviously have no knowledge of.

Wonder if I called the author (Chris Gee) a part time minicab driver instead of a reporter (and say "well they’re all the same to me")….wether he would be insulted?

Chris Gee is apparently advertising himself as 'the Manchester Evening New's democracy, reporter'. 😂

🟧 𝐀𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐭, 𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐁

Fantastic video from Stephen Fry, who for a Channel Four show Gadget Man, turned one of his old cabs into an amphibious Taxi. 

Click on the square box in the video, bottom right corner to see video 

Stephen was well known for his Green Taxi which was often seen parked on the feeder rank at John Lewis… but because of his popularity, attracted very few complaints from London’s finest. 

Very entertaining watch. 

𝐓𝐀𝐗𝐈 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐒 𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐑𝐀 𝐁𝐈𝐓: 

I recently had to part with my TX4, as it had reached the end of its life as a London Taxi (thanks to Sadiq Khans attack on the trade).

I’m now regretting selling it on. 

I would love to have turned it into an Amphicab.

𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐚 𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐧 𝐓𝐚𝐱𝐢:

Kate Moss who was given one by her friends as a birthday present and she can often be seen driving round London. 

Many years ago, Liberace had an old FX3 London Taxi shipped to the states and used it to pick up his friends from the airport. As a joke he used to put the meter on. 

Arnold Schwarzenegger bought a London Taxi and paid to have it shipped to his home in California in 2003. 

The iconic filmmaker Stanley Kubrick took to driving around in an iconic London cab in his latter years, proudly displaying his taxi at his Hertfordshire home for all to see.

Sid James starred in Carry On Cabby, so it was no surprise he was a self-proclaimed taxi enthusiast. 

Happy Mondays' Bez used the money from his Big Brother appearance to buy a black cab to "pimp" up.

Sir Laurence Olivier also took to driving in a black London taxi, too.

Yvette Fielding - presenter of Most Haunted - also has her own black cab for personal use. 

Most famous of all, the Duke of Edinburgh bought his own private green Metrocab. It was rumoured that he would put on a cloth cap, creep out of the Palace and drive down to the Kings Road for a quick Kebab.

🟦 𝐕𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐃𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐏𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐧 𝐓𝐚𝐱𝐢𝐬.

A victory of sort as Mail and Times change photos of London Taxis.

Unfortunately they are still using the word Taxi as the info behind both articles had come the the National Private Hire and Taxi Association.

We believe that this victory is due mainly to the strongly worded communications sent to both papers from 'London Taxi PR', who have again come up trumps for the trade.

We have received this email from the Daily Mail. 

Dear Mr Thomas,

 Thank you for your email which has been passed for my attention.

The editor has confirmed that the image you highlight has been replaced with a more appropriate stock image.

We note that the word ‘taxi’ could refer to any motor vehicle licensed to transport passengers for a fare, so we are satisfied that the usage of the term in this article is accurate.

In view of the above, we can see no reason to remove this article.

Thank you for getting in touch.

Sincerely,

Sam Muir

Compliance Editor

And have sent them this further reply. 

Dear Sam

The word Taxi (if researched properly) refers to a vehicle transporting paying passengers, that is exclusively fitted with a Taxi Meter, which calculates the fare. 

In UK legislation, only Hackney Carriage Vehicles are allowed to have Taxi meters. Private Hire cars (minicabs) are not allowed under legislation to be fitted with such device, and can not use the word Taxi in any way, be it signage on the vehicle, or in any form of advertising of their business. 

In London, this is covered by the Private Hire Act 1998 section 31

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/34/section/31

The article published by your paper refers to a recent court case that is only applicable to the Private Hire trade and has nothing to do with Taxis or the Licensed Taxi trade. The ruling makes that clear. 

Therefore I would ask you again to either remove this article from your website, or at least change the wording from Taxi to Private hire. 

James Thomas 

Editor New Taxi Leaks.

Sunday Times have removed the image of London Taxi, but still using the word Taxi in their post.

🟥 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞 𝐛𝐲 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐚 𝐀𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐌𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧. 𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐔𝐏𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐄. 𝐀𝐥𝐦𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬

Minicab fares in London could rise by 20% as High Court rules that companies rather than drivers are liable for contracts - meaning minicab firms could be responsible for charging VAT. 

This article has nothing to do with London’s finest Taxis, but the Mail goes with the false headline:

Taxi fares could rise by 20% as High Court rules that companies rather than drivers are liable for contracts - meaning hire firms could be responsible for charging VAT. 

They also post a misleading image of a line of London Taxis, instead of a line of minicabs 

If they can’t get this right…what else do they get wrong? 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12629627/Take-fares-rise-VAT-liable-High-Court.html

𝐓𝐀𝐗𝐈 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐊𝐒 𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐑𝐀 𝐁𝐈𝐓: 

Not surprisingly, the link to the story has been removed from their Twitter (X) and Facebook platforms after a deluge of complaint comments from real Taxi drivers. 

Unfortunately, the story is still up on their website.

Anyone wanting to contact the author of this article, she’s on Twitter(X) as

Natasha Anderson (@andersonatasha)

London Taxi PR have made this post:

Editorial complaint filed this morning with @MailOnline over yesterday's totally inaccurate news item regarding fares + misleading imagery. A wholly incorrect piece that we've highlighted & requested an apology be forthcoming. Woeful sloppy journalism, which we will not stand for. 

Unless this is corrected & apology issued we will take further action.

𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐔𝐏𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐄. 

𝐈𝐓 𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒:

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐘 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐏𝐎𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐀𝐍 𝐀𝐋𝐌𝐎𝐒𝐓 𝐈𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐘 𝐌𝐀𝐈𝐋.