On Thursday 5th December 2019 the LPHCA team organised a peaceful protest at the Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC) offices with members, operators and drivers to hand in a petition against the inappropriate new terms and conditions for the council contracts. A full list of the fines was published in an article within the winter 2019/20 edition of Private Hire News magazine.
The LPHCA had previously written to BCC to express our dismay as, in our opinion, many of these terms and conditions are wholly unreasonable, unfair and unworkable. We have also engaged our legal advisors Travis Morley, as we believe some of the requirements compromise safety.
As well as writing to BCC, the LPHCA was asked by members to attend two meetings, the second of which other members of our team and our legal advisor were present. We have now formed a plan of action, part of which is to widen knowledge of the harsh default charges and we have a third scheduled meeting with operators, which by the time we go to press should have taken place.
At our AGM last week members voted unanimously to challenge all entities that put what we consider to be unreasonable terms of contract on operators and drivers. Our action highlights the LPHCA’s proactive commitment to regional and national matters and reinforces the need for urgency in tackling this type of issue.
Local radio station Mix 96 kindly came along to the council offices at short notice to cover the event, for which we are very grateful, and a short clip played on the radio can be heard by clicking on the video below.