Plymouth City Council is set to go ahead with raising the fees paid by taxi drivers despite protests and a legal challenge.
The size of the original proposed increases led to noisy protests by taxi drivers who twice drove in convoy through the city centre to highlight their opposition.
They include a proposed rise of more than 80 per cent for a three-year licence for hackney and private hire drivers.
The council says taxi licensing has to cover its costs and the rises are needed over five years to avoid a deficit.
After public consultation over the original set of new fees published in January, a second option with lower increases in the first year was put forward.
A meeting of the taxi licensing sub-committee in February deferred a decision after the council received a legal challenge on behalf of the Plymouth Licensed Taxi Association.
The letter highlighted a High Court case between taxi drivers and the council at Wakefield in Yorkshire.
A judge ruled the council’s policy to recover the cost of enforcement action against drivers from the vehicle licence fee was unlawful.
Wakefield Council is waiting for the written judgement to decide whether to appeal.
Now Plymouth councillors are being told in a new report that after considering the letter in detail and taking further legal advice, officers are satisfied with how the taxi accounts have been handled.
The report says the council keeps two separate trading accounts for hackney and private hire.
It says there is no need for five separate trading accounts for each of the driver and vehicle licences and private hire operator fees, although it is happy to present the accounts in that way.
Addressing one of the legal issues raised by the drivers' letter, the report says there is no cross-subsidy between different licence fee accounts and surpluses and deficits have been carried forward correctly.
The sub-committee is being recommended to approve new fees coming into force straight away for a year - either the original proposal or the second option with lower rises - at a meeting on Thursday, March 21.
The lower initial rises are likely to result in bigger increases in following years.
The report to the committee says: "Plymouth City Council has acted in accordance to legal advice regarding the setting of fees and will review the transcript of the Wakefield Case when it is released."
The report says the hackney carriage driver and vehicle licence accounts are already in deficit and the private hire vehicle licence account is predicted to go into the red by the end of March.
There were 82 objections to the original fee increases which were published for consultation in mid-January, with most response saying they were too high.
Hackney carriages are the black cabs that pick up from taxi ranks and can be hailed in the street, while private hire taxis have to be booked in advance.
Both categories are licensed and regulated by the city council through the licensing framework set out in the Plymouth City Council Act 1975. The council also sets the fares for the hackney cabs.
The report to the committee said: “Fees for licences should be set at a figure which will recover the full cost of the licensing administration including enforcement, in so far as is consistent with the particular provisions which allow licence fees to be charged.
“The budgets for licensing are operated as two trading accounts, one for Private Hire and the other for Hackney Carriage.
“Within each account, the elements are separated into driver licence and vehicle licence, with an added operator element for the private hire account.
“A review of the current fees has been undertaken to balance the two trading accounts and ensure there is no cross-subsidy of any of the five elements.”
The original proposed fees for hackney carriages would see a one-year vehicle licence go from £210 to £342, a rise of £132 or 62.9 per cent, working out at an extra £2.54 a week; one-year driver’s licence: £112 to £165 (£53/47.3%/£1.02); three-year driver’s licence: £238 to £435 (£197/82.8%/£1.26).
The alternative new fees include a one-year vehicle licence rising to £300 instead of £342; one-year driver’s licence £130 instead of £165; three-year driver’s licence £330 instead of £435.
For private hire, the original proposed fees saw a one-year vehicle licence go from £117 to £170 (£53/45.3%/£1.02); one-year driver’s licence: £82 to £120 (£38/46.3%/£0.73); three-year driver’s licence: £160 to £300 (£140/87.5%/£0.90).
The alternative new fees include a one year vehicle licence rising to £145 instead of £170; one-year driver’s licence £110 instead of £120; three-year driver’s licence £270 instead of £300.
A spokesman for the Plymouth Licensed Taxi Association declined to comment ahead of the meeting.
