TAXI LICENSING RULES

Councillors are considering a potential u-turn over taxi licensing rules for people carriers. The city council's licensing and appeals committee are to decide whether or not to approve a new set of conditions for private hire vehicles. Council leader Chris Williamson called for the review after Derby taxi driver Guv Sanghera was refused a licence to carry six people in his six-seater people carrier. Mr Sanghera spent £20,000 on a Ford Galaxy to set up a private hire company to take people to and from East Midlands Airport.

But he was told by the council that it did not issue licences for six-seater vehicles because of safety concerns, despite the Galaxy being designed to carry six people. The current rules, which are seven years old, list two different sets of conditions: one for four-seater saloon cars and another for eight-seater minibuses. As Mr Sanghera's vehicle did not fall into either category, the council was only able to offer him a licence for four passengers. Council officers have since drawn up two new sets of minimum standards for private hire vehicles which councillors will discuss.

Environmental health manager John Tomlinson said, "One of the draft specifications relaxes the standards completely, the other has very clear guidelines for vehicles with three or more rows of seats." But a change would not automatically mean that Mr Sanghera would become eligible for a licence with Derby City Council. If councillors opted for the stricter set of guidelines, he would still fall foul of the rules. Councillor Margaret Redfern, who chairs the licensing and appeals committee, said no decision had yet been made. Mr Sanghera, of Lewis Street, finally managed to launch his business last month by basing it at his brother's address in Stenson Fields, which falls under South Derbyshire District Council's taxi licensing rules.