Fife MSP David Torrance has branded the council’s handling of Uber’s taxi booking-office licence “scandalous” after 431 objections were ruled invalid and the application was approved.
Uber Scot Ltd sought a booking-office licence for premises in Rosyth. Local taxi operators, drivers, businesses and residents lodged hundreds of representations. Objectors say they were invited to speak at the Regulation and Licensing Committee, then told at the start of the hearing that their objections were legally incompetent.
Uber’s solicitor argued the published objections failed statutory requirements — including specifying grounds, names and addresses, and signatures. Committee convener Councillor Tom Adams moved that they be disregarded. With no competent objections left, the application proceeded unopposed and was granted.
Council apology and review
Fife Council later apologised. Lindsay Thomson, head of legal and democratic services, said Uber’s agents raised a preliminary legal point at the hearing that officers had not spotted in advance, and that once the hearing had begun the defective objections could not be fixed or replaced. She said a review was under way so the situation cannot be repeated.
Torrance, writing in Fife Today, said people who prepared cases were left discovering their objections were out only as the meeting opened. He has written to chief executive Ken Gourlay asking what investigation will follow and how confidence in the process will be restored.
Kirkcaldy North councillor Carol Lindsay, a committee member, asked whether competency should have been checked during agenda preparation rather than emerging mid-hearing. Dunfermline Press reported councillors were told there had not been enough time to check all 431 objections because of the volume.
St Andrews Taxis operator Linda Holt told The Courier the episode was “completely scandalous” after objectors were invited to speak and then shut out on signature grounds. Trade concerns raised in coverage included driver verification and safeguarding if Uber operates through the Fife office — points the committee did not hear once the objections fell.