CALDERDALE Council is to refund thousands of pounds to taxi drivers who were fined under an “illegal” fixed penalty scheme.

The council was forced to abandon the scheme of ‘offence notices’, which it introduced on April 1 2008, after a legal challenge.

The council must now hand back £4,725 in fines levied under the scheme, which sought to impose fixed penalties on taxi drivers for minor infringements of their licensing agreements, most commonly for not wearing their driver’s badge.

Calderdale licensing officers issued 84 notices between April 1, 2008, and May 31, 2009.

The climb-down came after Calderdale Private Hire Association recruited a licensing consultant to challenge the lawfulness of the scheme in July.

David Wilson, of Northumberland-based a2z licensing, made a written submission to the council’s licensing and regulatory committee arguing that the fixed penalty scheme was unlawful.

And after taking legal advice, councillors agreed to abandon the scheme.

Mr Wilson said: “While it’s unfortunate the council did not realise the scheme was unlawful in the first place, credit must be given to councillors and officers for the fair and open way in which they have dealt with this matter, since the legal basis for challenging the scheme was submitted to them.”

Calderdale had argued that the scheme was legal under local government legislation because it was likely to “achieve... the promotion or improvement of the economic, social or environmental well-being” of the area.

But Mr Wilson said there was no evidence to suggest the licensing and regulatory committee had any regard to a “community strategy”.

Instead a report, by the council’s chief law and administration officer, said the scheme aimed to “create a more effective enforcement procedure and reduce use of administrative and legal resources”.

Mr Wilson said other local authorities seeking to make savings had done so by operating non-financial schemes, usually on the basis of penalty points, where offenders face prosecution if they receive a set number of points within a specified period of time.

The council will now revert to a system of written cautions followed by prosecutions in the magistrates’ courts.