Operators in Fife have opened a legal fund over the booking-office licence granted to Uber Scot Ltd on 22 September. That decision is already on TaxiFeed, in Uber Fife office approved after 400 objections thrown out.
The campaign, Uber Fife, is raising the money on CrowdJustice for solicitor Jonny Nisbet. The first target is £5,000. The page says costs could reach £20,000, and that pledges are returned if the first target is missed. STV reported £2,035 on the afternoon of Tuesday 14 October. Checked on 16 October, the page showed £3,177 from 36 pledges.
The council’s reply treats a court case as something that may still be brought. The campaign says the council has confirmed that Uber applied electronically, and that it cannot produce the statutory determination governing electronic submissions. It wants a court to decide whether that application was valid, and whether the objections were lawfully rejected.
What operators said
William Laing, of Prompt Taxis, told STV that local operators have to follow the licensing rules in detail, and that a platform should be held to the same standard. Sam Green, of Magnum Taxis, said people who objected were not heard, and that a challenge can test whether the rules were lawful and clear.
Linda Holt, co-owner of St Andrews Taxis, said the committee had 431 objections on record, invited 25 objectors to speak, and heard from none of them. She said that if the council cannot produce the determination, nobody can be confident the same rules were applied to Uber and to the objectors.
She told The Courier on 24 September that a number of firms had agreed not to employ drivers who work for Uber. “They will be black sheep,” she said.
Tahir Muzammil, owner of Dunfermline City Taxis, told The Herald that Uber’s arrival would change the trade. He said passengers might have more choice, and that firms which had invested in their fleets wanted every driver held to the same standards.
Kirkcaldy MSP David Torrance told The Herald that Fife firms already struggle to recruit, and that Uber hiring more drivers would hit them. He also said the app could help people leaving pubs and clubs in Kirkcaldy, and women who would otherwise wait or walk at night. His criticism of the hearing is in a separate article.
The council
Steven Paterson, the council’s legal team manager, told STV the authority knows about the campaign. He said it would not comment further while proceedings are possible, and that it will answer through the legal channels if a challenge is brought.
The licence is for a booking office at Rosyth Business Centre, on the Cromarty Campus.