Good news for the sexshops but bad newsfor cabbies
Taxi drivers in Portsmouth have suffered a huge hike in licence fees while sex shops have had their rates slashed by a third.
Portsmouth City Council's licensing department claims it needs more 30,000 to pay for a new computer system.
So it has raised the cost of renewing a taxi licence by up to 20 per cent over the next two years.
But the price of renewing a licence for the city's two sex shops, in Arundel Street and Albert Road, has fallen by 4,000 from 12,000 to 8,000.
The move has sparked outrage among cabbies.
Bruce Hall, managing director of Aqua cars, said: 'Once again the private hire drivers are subsidising other licensable activities.
'The sex shops will benefit from the computer system too but we are paying for it. Drivers are already struggling in today's economic climate, with the rising costs of fuel and road tax. They don't need to be paying any more.'
The city council said income from licence fees should cover the cost of running the service so taxpayers aren't landed with a bill.
It says sex shops have been paying more than their share and that taxi drivers have escaped rises in charges since 2004.
Licensing manager Nickii Humphreys said: 'We have always tried to keep licence fees down but everybody is facing budget pressures.
'If we had no need to increase licence fees we would not do it.'
She added: 'We asked for a reduction in sex shop licenses on the basis that the income from two premises is 24,000 a year and we don't spend enough office time on those two premises to justify that – the income is greater than our expenditure.'
The licensing committee agreed to spread the rises over two years to lessen the impact.
Hamish Fowlie, manager of Outlook UK which supplies licensed taxis to Aqua, estimates it will cost him an extra 4,000 a year to license his cabs.
'I don't think such a big increase for small businesses can be justified in this economic climate,' he said.
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Weather for Portsmouth
Thursday 24 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 15 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: West
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