Cash boost to improve taxis

Mar 12 2008 by Neil Atkinson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

COUNCIL officials plan to get tougher on taxis.

An extra £40,000 in each of the next three years will be invested in improving the enforcement of Kirklees taxi and other licensing policies.

The authority also plans to set up a complaints and compliments telephone line for the service.

Clr Christine Iredale, who chairs the council’s Licensing Committee, said: “What this is about is improving the service for people who use the services and businesses that we have a responsibility to regulate and license.

“In the main we are talking about the taxi trade, but there are other areas of licensing which we need to make sure are being enforced and worked to properly by the people we do our day-to-day business with.

“This is not taking a ‘big stick’ against people who have to be licensed with us for their activities – far from it.

“It is a move to invest money in helping them provide a better service and enable us to give them more support and advice. It is all part of the service.

“We also want to make it easier for the general public to contact the licensing service with any issues they feel need to be raised with us as a result of them using businesses and activities licensed by the service.

“They can be complaints, compliments about the service they received, or general comments.”