The following is a statement from the City Council following a court hearing involving the council and Delta Taxis.
Delta Taxis were granted a Liverpool private hire operator’s licence in November 2014 dependent on the company complying with a number of conditions. However, after an investigation of the company’s practices it was found that they were not compliant with those conditions, and the Council acted swiftly to revoke the licence.
Delta appealed the revocation and a court date was set. In the intervening time Delta have changed their operation to meet the conditions of the licence, therefore demonstrating that the Council’s decision to revoke was reasonable, something District Judge Shaw confirmed in today’s ruling. As Delta are now complying with the conditions, the appeal was upheld by the court.
The District Judge added that he did not seek to criticise the City Council because the litigation was complicated and uncertain but he ordered that the Council should pay Delta’s costs since March when an offer was made to drop the appeal if the revocation of the licence withdrawn.
The City Council believes it was correct to take this matter to the court as the public, as well as those operators and drivers who comply with their licence conditions, rightly expect the city to take action against any operator failing to comply with the terms of their licence.
The City Council will robustly enforce all licence conditions within the city and continue to support the Liverpool licenced taxi trade.