The Coventry Taxi Association (CTA) is threatening Coventry City Council with legal action in an ongoing dispute over the number of licenses for black cabs in the city.
Cabbies are unhappy at falling earnings and the number of black cabs for sale continues to increase, due to the Council’s decision not to regulate hackney taxi license numbers.
Black Cabs Strike Action
Following a five day strike by black cab drivers in January, the council agreed to conduct an investigation into the issue and introduce an interim cap on licensing at the next Labour Group meeting.
At that meeting however, it was announced that the council’s legal team had advised against introducing an interim cap, stating that it would leave the council open to a legal challenge on the matter.
The decision led to a second strike, with black cab drivers also staging a ‘Go-Slow’ protest in the city centre during one evening rush hour.
Return to Work
After eight days of industrial action, the cabbies voted unanimously to return to work. Although they failed to achieve a u-turn from the council on the interim cap, the council did agree to a three-month review of all the issues raised by the cab drivers. Consequently, the cabbies all returned to work the following day.
The drivers insist that waiting for the review’s outcome will mean even more black cabs for sale on the streets of Coventry and more pressure on their livelihoods. However, Imran Zaman, chairman of the CTA and leader of the strikes, stated:
“After nine days, we’ve achieved recognition that there are problems which need to be sorted out.”
Issues Not Resolved
Mr Zaman went on to warn the council that legal action was inevitable if changes were not made to black cab regulations in the city. He said:
“Our problems haven’t been recognised for years. We’ve also achieved unity throughout the cab trade.”
He also announced that the CTA had: “instructed legal advisers to issue court proceedings” in seeking a judicial review on the council’s decision to reject the imposition of an interim cap on black cab numbers.