GUILDFORD MP BACKS LOCAL TAXI DRIVERS PROTESTING IN WESTMINSTER AGAINST DEREGULATION

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 8th Mar 2004

Sue Doughty MP met today with a group of taxi drivers from Guildford joining hundreds from throughout the country protesting against deregulation recommendations from the Office of Fair Trading.

Sue said:

"In Guildford we need good quality, safe and reliable drivers and cars. Our taxi drivers are working hard to provide this and deregulation will undermine their efforts. The evidence shows that managed growth is the best way to ensure that quality of service is retained while the quantity of drivers increases."

The Transport Select Committee has warned that the OFT report "Manifestly does not contain the evidence required to support its only proposal for legislative change: the abolition of quantity regulation."

Sue said:

"Responsible politicians in the Government and in Guildford Borough Council should accept the recommendation by MPs of all parties following the Transport Committee's investigation. A blinkered commitment to deregulation that flies in the face of the evidence will only wreck the quality of our local taxi services.

"I have written to the Secretaries of State for Transport and Trade and Industry to ask that the government listens to the views of both the Transport Committee and the taxi drivers from Guildford."