Taxi fares could rise across county under new council proposal

Elgan Hearn – Local democracy reporter

Taxi journeys across a Welsh county could cost more soon as councillors look at proposals to increase fares.

At a special meeting of Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s General Licensing committee on Thursday, September 3, councillors will receive a report based on the response to a consultation earlier this year that include proposals to increase fees.

The council had received messages from a number of taxi drivers who were asking for the minimum fare to increase from £4 to £4.50 and were pointing out that the price of fuel has spiked upwards.

One asked whether they could charge tariff two charges, the higher prices used between 10pm and 6am until the price of fuel comes down.

Another option put forward by a taxi driver is to allow the night time price increase which is a £5 minimum charge to start at 6pm instead of 10pm.

The council said: “This report  seeks the views of the committee on a proposal to increase the hackney carriage fare tariff following requests from the taxi trade and the summarises the outcome of the consultation process in respect of those fares.

“This report seeks to enable the authority to continue to set an appropriate fare tariff for the taxi trade to support thriving, competitive and affordable taxi services for the public in Blaenau Gwent.”

The consultation took place in May and received 118 responses from taxi and hackney cab drivers.

A further two responses have been received after the consultation finished.

The council said: “Longer term, if fare tariffs are set too high, this may negatively affect demand for the taxi trade.

“Fares which are set too low however may result in some taxi businesses becoming economically unviable if costs rise to unsustainable levels and this could result in a reduction in the number of licensed hackney carriages in Blaenau Gwent.

“Should this occur, the Authority would also experience a consequential reduction in licence fee income.”

Currently the cost of a two-mile journey is £6.40 which compares with a UK average of £7.46.

A proposal to increasing the basic tariff to £4.50 and charging 23 pence for every twelfth of a mile the cost of a two-mile journey would become £7.26, for 15 miles £15.54 and 10 miles £29.34.

An alternative would see the twelfth of a mile cost increase by 25 pence – which would see the charges for two-mile journey go up to £7.50, five miles £16.50 and 10 miles £31.50.

The proposal for tariff two, would see the tariff used from 6pm to 6am the current charge for up to £5.63 and the twelfth of a mile price increase to 28 pence.

This would see the two-mile journey cost £8.99, for five miles £19.07 and 10 miles £35.87.

An alternative proposal would see the standing charge start at £5.60 and the twelfth of a mile charge at 30 pence.

This would see a two-mile journey cost £9.20, for five miles £20 and 10 miles £38.

Other tariff proposal include putting the prices up to £9 and 45 pence for every twelfth of a mile around the Christmas and New Year period.

Comments and advice from councillors will help inform the joint director of neighbourhoods and environment Mark Thomas who will ultimately decide the fares.

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