TORY and SNP councillors driving efforts to aid a private hire driver facing a Saltire cab ban are to meet with officials next week, The National has learned.
Rob Jamieson’s plans to expand his Saltire Taxis & Tours service hit a bump in the road after Stirling Council officials saw red over his blue-and-white car.
The private hire vehicle’s design features white decals attached to the roof and bonnet in a bid to better appeal to the lucrative tourist market in the Trossachs.
Jamieson told The National he had been given the green light for the distinctive decoration in two calls to the local authority prior having them fitted, but the council says that they breach local regulations that outlaw signage anywhere but the doors of the vehicle.
Jamieson, who has been told to remove the crosses, says they do not constitute corporate signage and has urged officials to do a U-turn.
READ MORE: Scottish councillors speak out in support of banned saltire taxi
Now the Conservative and SNP councillors backing him are to hold a meeting with decision-makers aimed at securing a review of the rules – and keeping Jamieson’s Saltires in place.
Martin Earl of the Tories and Evelyn Tweed of the SNP both represent Jamieson’s Killin community, which is part of the Trossachs and Teith ward.
Despite political differences, they are working together to help their constituent. Talks with licensing officers and councillors with responsibility over private hire operations were supposed to take place today, but have been postponed until next week to ensure all involved can attend.
Jamieson commented: “It’s fantastic to get their support – I’m very pleasantly surprised that councillors from different parties can be seen to be working together for the benefit of their constituents.
“Everybody I meet now says ‘don’t give up on this, take it the whole way’. People can’t see what the problem is – the car looks great.”
SNP-and-Labour-run Stirling Council said it wants to find “a positive resolution to this matter”.
It was raised with Jamieson two months after he hit the road, having relocated to Scotland from Kent.
Tweed has previously stated her intention to “press for answers” and yesterday Earl told The National a rule review could conclude “within weeks”, if it was prioritised.
In a letter to the chair of the Planning and Regulation panel, he wrote: “The livery has also been designated as advertising due to the name of the company. This would suggest that were it of a different design or the name of the company was different then that would not apply.
“There is clearly an ambiguity here.”
Commenting last night, the Conservative councillor said: “This is a bit daft, frankly. The guy’s trying to run a business. You don’t want regulations to get in the way of people being entrepreneurial.
“Problems like this tell you that the rules need changing.”
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