No taxi price hike planned
There will be no increase in taxi fares in Perth and Kinross until 2019 at least after a decision was made at a licensing committee meeting last week.
The meeting,held on Thursday, July 12, concluded that the current charges, which have been in force since April 2017, will remain due to low responses from Perth and Kinross taxi companies.
In accordance with the Civic Government (Scotland) Act 1982 a review was carried out in May 2018 and all individual taxi operators and organisations representing, or appearing to be, representative of the operators of taxis in Perth and Kinross were invited to put forward their proposals.
A council report said: “Letters were sent to 107 taxi operators, 81 private hire vehicle operators with meters fitted and organisations. Fourteen replies were received.
“Two of those who responded wished the fares to remain unchanged, 10 wished the fares to be increased, one suggested a change to the tariff times and one wished the soiling charge to be increased.
“In light of the extremely low response rate from the taxi trade to the consultation, it is proposed that the scale of fares and existing tariffs remain unchanged. This would have the effect of continuing fares where there is a meter in place at the present levels until a further review is carried out in summer 2019.”
In line with the legislation, the council is required to review its scale of fares and other charges for the hire of taxis at intervals not exceeding 18 months.
At present the council operates a three tariff system. These provide for increasing rates from tariff one to tariff three.
Tariff one applies from 6.30am11pm with a £3 charge for the first 880 yards and a 10p charge for every 110 yards thereafter.
Tariff two applies between 11pm6.30am with a £3.80 charge for the first 880 yards and a 10p charge for
A low response from traders means fares will remain the same until at least next summer
every 88 yards thereafter.
And tariff three applies on December 24,25,26,31 and January 1 and 2 with a £4.50 charge for the first 880 yards and 10p charge every 74 yards thereafter.
The meeting proposed that the scale of the fares could be advertised in the local press and that interested parties are invited to respond within one month of the advertisement.
These responses would then be considered at the licensing committee meeting on August 23, 2018.
Also that if no representations are received, the scale of fares and existing tariffs remain unchanged.
However, the final recommendation was to keep fares the same with a review next summer.