James Glen of St Andrews Taxis, Tahir Ali of New City Taxis in Rosyth and Tariq Ali of Taz's Taxis in Saline served a writ on Fife Council on 20 October. It was lodged at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court by Edinburgh solicitors Nisbets. The three men want the booking-office licence granted to Uber Scot Ltd for Rosyth Business Centre quashed, and the application sent back so the objections can be considered. The court has not yet considered or determined the claims. Legal challenge launched to overturn Uber licence in Fife
Fife Council granted that licence on 22 September, after the Regulation and Licensing Committee treated the objections as invalid and the decision passed to officers under delegated powers. The grant, and the fund opened to pay for a challenge, are already on TaxiFeed. The writ is the challenge itself.
The arguments
The case is that the council made legal and factual errors and did not give objectors a fair chance to have their say: that two of the men had posted signed letters, so not every objection was unsigned; that objectors at the meeting should have been allowed to answer the challenge to their objections; that the council should have considered whether the signature problems could be corrected rather than rejecting the objections; and that typed names on emailed objections could count as electronic signatures. The writ refers to correspondence which, on their account, shows that a licensing officer had accepted one objector's digital signature before the hearing.
Glen's account
James Glen said: "Fife Council strung objectors along for eight months, accepted their objections as valid and invited them to speak. Then, faced with Uber's lawyer, it capitulated and shut them out.
"It then granted the licence without further ado, ignoring the stringent conditions set by other authorities on Uber licences.
"Officers and councillors, under Cllr Tom Adams's stewardship, failed both the taxi trade and the wider Fife public. This was an abuse of the democratic process.
"The Council has apologised, but an apology is nowhere near enough. Individual Fifers should not have to find thousands of pounds to put right the council's failure to give them a fair hearing."
The Uber Fife campaign expects Uber will in the end hold a permanent licence in Fife, and maintains that does not excuse what it believes was an unfair process.
Council and the fund
Steven Paterson, Fife Council's legal team manager, said: "We're aware of these legal proceedings but cannot comment further whilst the case is ongoing."
Uber had been approached for comment on the new challenge. Checked on 27 October, the campaign's CrowdJustice page showed £4,177 from 57 pledges, towards a first target of £5,000. That figure is the campaign's own. The page says potential costs could reach £20,000. Challenge Fife Council's Uber licensing decision