The following was sent to me by PM. It is an extract from a post made by the resident Juris Doctor (Graham Ansboro) on the dark orifice. I believe he is a taxi driver in Manchester; perhaps some of our colleagues from down south could confirm this? Anyhow, this is the extract:-
"I shouldn't say this but I really cant hold it in any longer.
I'm sorry for the English and welsh contingent who frequent this forum but this post concerns Edinburgh yet again.
For those who don't know, a gentleman named Alan G who apparently runs, or used to run a forum called fastblacks, wrote a post on that forum in respect of Jacob's consulting. He offered the opinion that figures can be made out to be what anyone wants them to be. His post was basically about my demolition of the Jacob's survey and the inaccurate figures they presented in that survey.
Mr Alan G and many of his staunch followers voiced their opinion that the City of Edinburgh council would wipe the floor with those who had dared to apply for hackney carriage licenses in that fair city. I responded to Mr Alan G with the statement that the City of Edinburgh Council would not win any more license applications from that day on.
Naturally I was proven correct. The reason I made that statement was because I was extremely confident of my ability to convince the courts that the law should be applied as per the statutory requirements as laid down in the act of 1982. The rest is now history and the court of appeal has set the precedent as I said it would.
What all this is alluding to is the fact that there is another case upon us that is more important than all those previous appeals put to together. This particular case has far reaching consequences for those councils in Scotland who practice quantity controls. It is patently obvious that those of you who hold hackney carriage licenses in restricted areas are oblivious to what this case means to every licensing area in Scotland?
When this particular appeal is won and I am in no doubt whatsoever that it will be won, then from that day on restrictions in scotland will be a thing of the past. You can thank Edinburgh Council for that scenario and if you don't know why then you can ask your local Taxi association or perhaps Mr Alan G?"
It is obvious that he credits himself with the recent Court of Session opinion which led to the issue of 6 taxi licences. We know this is not the case since the court opinion exposed the errors made by all parties and made their decision for different reasons. The only precedent set was that waiting on up to date information was not to be regarded as "good reason" for failing to consider licence applications within the statutory period. What could be regarded as "good reason" was not given.
He is currently behind the Taylor licence application and opines that this will succeed to the detriment of every area in Scotland which restricts numbers.
As for who to thank for this, I think we are all adult enough to realise that any blame, should derestriction happen, lies at the feet of those seeking to destroy the system rather than any taxi association.
Finally, contrary to his statement, I have no "staunch followers," nor do I lead anyone. I state my opinion, as do most who post on here, and I resent those who are currently attempting to ruin the current high level of service which the trade in Edinburgh currently give to the public.
Admin
heres a link to the original post on fasties
http://www.fastblacks.com/forum/index.php?topic=1438.0