1847 byelaw runs tuk tuk taxi plan off the road
Now the bosses of the Totnes Rickshaw Company are taking legal advice before deciding whether to continue the battle with an appeal direct to the magistrates courts.
The company had applied to South Hams Council's Licensing Committee for a taxi licence to run its two 416cc tuk tuk — powered rickshaws — in Totnes, primarily picking up passengers on Steamer Quay and taking them to the top of the town's steep main street.
But the application was booted out because the three-wheeled machines, which are used as taxis across South East Asia, do not comply with the council's own byelaws or the act covering Hackney Carriage licenses which dates back to 1847.
The Totnes businessman behind the tuk tuk operation, Pete Ryeland, said after the licensing hearing: "It seems to me that the reasons for refusal are because they do not conform to the byelaws. We will be looking at appealing but we will have to take legal advice first.
"Byelaws are put there by the community for the community and it's up to the community to change them."
He said that if the district councillors had said yes to the licence the tuk tuks would have been the 'only sustainable public transport in the whole of Totnes'.
The Totnes Rickshaw Company wants a taxi licence to link up with the Riverlink pleasure boats calling at Steamer Quay to carry up to three passengers at a time from the quay to the top of Totnes.
It would also operate a service taking people as far as Bridgetown, Follaton and Dartington using the machines which would be power on biofuel derived from recycled cooking oil.
Company director Dave Lacey, who runs the Sachs wholefood shop in The Narrows, said: "It's a novel vehicle but it has a serious purpose."
He said the tuk tuks would enable people to get to the top of the steep main street, many of whom at the present neither have 'the time or the energy' to get there when they land at Steamer Quay.
The licensing committee took just 35 minutes to make up their minds about the tuk tuk taxi licence after the district's licensing officer Graham Munson told them that the three-wheeled machines fell foul of the council's byelaws, including rules that a taxi must have two rear doors while the tuk tuks don't have any doors at all, and cab must be over 1,300cc but the tuk tuks have less than two thirds of that power beneath their bonnets.
Mr Musun also explained that the rules governing Hackey Carriage actually date back to 1847 when they were dealing with carriages pulled by donkeys and horses.
"There are calls for a revamp of the taxi legislation but it has not happened yet," he told the nine members of the committee.
The committee members were invited to examine a tuk tuk and watch Mr Ryeland driving it around the grounds of their Follaton House HQ before launching into the hearing.
Committee chairman John Baverstock told Mr Ryeland and Mr Lacey: "We very much recognise the merits of the application and what you intend for the people of Totnes. However it is with regret that we have to refuse this application.
"One of the reasons for doing that is that the existing byelaws severely restrict us from granting it."
Mr Ryeland had told the committee that an alternative to a taxi licence was a 'flexible bus licence' which means applying to the Traffic Commissioners.
However, he explained, that would take months to come through, would be a lot more expensive and impose restrictions on the Totnes operation the Rickshaw Company wanted to set up.
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