The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL kvirgil@tribunemedia.net PRIME Minister Hubert Ingraham said the practice of taxi and bus franchise owners leasing their licence plates for thousands of dollars a year will be banned if his party is re-elected. And, he told all those currently paying up to $500 a month for the plates, "when the FNM wins, we will give you your plate." His comments came at the St Anne's constituency office opening for FNM incumbent Hubert Chipman on Tuesday evening. Mr Ingraham said he intends to free taxi and bus drivers from "all these people who are sitting down collecting." But president of the Taxi Cab Union Leon Griffin said he is disappointed that no prior mention of the plan was made to the union. He said: "Mr Ingraham is the PM and he can do whatever he wants to do, but we should have been told before the announcement, so that we could have sat with the PM and discussed the right way to do it. "A change like that could have a devastating affect on the 1,135 taxi franchise licenses and those running taxis here." Saying he agrees that some regulation of the sector is needed, Mr Griffin pointed in particular to the way plates are passed on after their owner has died. He said: "In situations where a husband or wife passes their privileges on, I would allow the next of kin to keep the franchise until they would have died. When that happens, then the plates can be taken back by the government. "However, there are some people who have never been apart of the taxi arena who have franchises, and they should not. "For years, the industry was looked at as a market that people didn't want to get into until times got hard. Then they get in, and the first thing they want to do is get a taxi franchise, when there are people who have been in the area for 20-plus years and have not gotten the go-ahead to do the same."