IN Bury, all new hackney and private hire drivers must pass a "knowledge" test on the geographic area and the laws that regulate their trade.

As mentioned before, these laws are laid down by Acts of Parliament but are liable, all too often, to be "conditioned" by Labour councils.

With the principle in mind that "only cooks should write recipes", I asked some of the councillors who sit on the licensing committee the important question: what in the eyes of the law is a private hire vehicle? None had the vaguest idea!

As Labour loves the doctrine of regimentation, and to save the lives of those who might be killed in the rush to get the answer from the council legal department, may I suggest that the other councillors form an orderly queue on the town hall steps.

Alternatively, they will find the answer, but not the reasoning, in section 80(1) of the 1976 Act. Better still, they should be regular readers of this newspaper.

ULTRA VIRES

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.