STaN WEEK...The STaN Agenda and Why We Have to Fight....Part 1

So Peter Hendy doesn't recognise TfL's own figures, given to them by the Metropolitan Police.
In a recent radio interview he has said "They are the work of a militant Taxi driver".


One of the many reasons Ken Livingstone agreed to license minicabs was the unbelievably high instances of sexual assaults including rapes carried out by minicab drivers. As an unsavoury minicab trade transformed into a new licensed service, the numbers of drivers seemed to be reducing as forecast by Livingstone. This was in fact an optical illusion, as many were still operating unlawfully. New facilities were put in place to reward drivers for paying the new license fee. 

The one that has done the most damage to the Licensed Taxi trade is the satellite operating centre. Private Hire has been allowed to operate from inside any premises they like and the need for planning permission has been removed. This agenda was clearly laid out in a 2002 presentation called Safer Travel at Night (STaN). Unbelievably the STaN report suggested that enforcement against touting should be dropped so resources could be deployed elsewhere.   


The new concept of unenforced satellite offices operated undetected for the first few years, as Taxi drivers were already used to seeing lines of the old style touts outside virtually all clubs and bars. As PH operators became more greedy, they invented, "The Clipboard Johnny". A man in a high visibility jacket with Taxi Service or Mini Cab emblazoned on it. These touts allocated jobs to waiting drivers, who would pay him a flat fee. The only enforcement would be a quick check to see if they had paid for a satellite license.


Licensed Taxi drivers complained to TfL, local councils and the Police but to their amazement found their complaints were being completely ignored.
Drivers started to send mass emails, in campaigns run by the Anderson Shelter, the LTCPR and the LTDF Taxi Forum.

Replies came back from the likes of Luke Howard, who would then point out, in his interpretation of the Hackney Carriage law (which bore no resemblance to the abstract of law given to all new drivers) PHV drivers could openly tout as long as the premises had a satellite operating license. 


With quite a few PH Vehicles having darkened glass in their rear screens, tickets were being issued by TfL for contraventions like, Parking in 24 hour Bus Lanes and Parking on Double Red Lines. So TfL issued new blue badges which would allow TfL and local council CCTV camera operators to pick out the touts and allow them to contravene any parking restrictions.


In 2007/8 it was decided by TfL, the satellite operating centres program would be escalated as the figures for assaults and rapes had dropped.
As these centres suddenly grew, along with a massive surge in PHV driver numbers, so did the attacks on females and males, as sexual predators found a safe haven, hiding in plain sight within the lines of touts outside London's nightspots.

The next victim could be your Daughter/Wife

By the end of 2009 the statistics for rapes and assaults had gone through the roof with a staggering rise of 54%.


The rise in sexual attacks is a direct result of the extra licenses granted to shady operations. Sometimes just a flashing light, erected on a wall in an alleyway, would have lines of PHV's openly touting. 24 hour mini marts, kiosks, and in one case an old telephone box have also been used as satellite offices.


TfL and local councils have bent over backwards to facilitate operators and a blind eye has been turned to enforcement, in order to clear the streets of potential troublemakers at weekends.


TfL have been widely embarrassed by  the release of these figures by the Metropolitan Police

Unfortunately the Statistics for 2010 have recently been compromised by three Met Police officers who were removed from their jobs, when they were found to be changing statements and entering rape cases as non crimes...
It is our belief at the Anderson Shelter that this was a  deliberate conspiracy to disguise the fact that attacks are still rising. 


At the moment, there is a complete stop on the issue of new operating centre licenses, but this situation may revert soon.


For TfL boss Peter Hendy to say he didn't recognise the figures that showed a 54% increase in attacks is an insult to every victim and their families, who have had their lives completely shattered by these attacks.


But the biggest scandal of all, is the fact that the so called United Trade Group leaders of the LTDA, LCDC and Unite, knew about the STaN agenda and have agreed to bury it under a wall of silence.