A taxi journey in Harrogate is set to rise following a request by the Harrogate hackney carriage trade to increase fares by 2.4%
Harrogate Borough Council are the statutory body for setting hackney carriage prices and have been working with the Harrogate hackney trade liaison group. The last rise in maximum fares took effect in November 2012.
Also, as a result of the Deregulation Act, the Council needs to introduce new fees to the hackney operators. This has led to a review of all the fees affected by the Act as significant changes have occurred since the last full review in 2011
Using the agreed hackney carriage fare review formula fares should be reduced 3.03%, based on the current reduction in fuel prices.
Private Hire Monthly magazine publishes a league table which ranks all the councils in England and Wales in accordance to the cost of hackney carriage fares. In the latest (September 2015) edition Harrogate was 48th most expensive charging £6.40 at 2 miles – another 19 local authorities also sat at £6.40.
This is out of a total of 365 local authorities, with Harrogate previously been in the top 20.
The trade have commented that Harrogate’s position is not as high for journeys of greater than 2 miles hence their requests to increase the running mile but not the flag fall.
The proposed fare request is going before the Harrogate Borough Council cabinet on 20 January 2016, where the decisions will be made. The recommendation from Council Officers is for a 1.5% increase.
