Richard Baum

The municipal year is gliding serenely towards the buffers. Let’s hope it doesn’t hit them between now and the end of the month.

Last night I attended the final Licensing and Safety Panel of the municipal year. This is where a group of Councillors discuss the licensed taxi trade in Bury, and consider applications for taxi licences to be granted or revoked.

It’s not like the traditional Council meetings, where often-baffling reports are considered in all their tedious glory, and things get done at a pace which makes an aged tortoise look like Usain Bolt. Instead, we have instant justice, as we get to decide which of the previously very naughty characters applying for taxi licences have been reformed to such a degree that they’re now fit and proper people to cart your grandma to Morrisons.

And last night we dispensed said justice three times. It’s a good feeling, as there are clearly people who were stupid when they were kids, are still paying for it now by having to submit to CRB checks every time they apply for a job, but who we can give a chance to. The guidelines we use are tight and very much with the safety of the public in mind. Where there’s doubt, the vote more often than not refuses the application. But it’s good to be able to reward a reformed character. Even if that reward takes the form of a drunken fare from Kay Gardens to Radcliffe at 3am on a Saturday morning.

It may be the last time I am on that panel, as after May it’s a new municipal year, and all of our meetings get thrown into the air to land in new and attractive combinations. But at least I can be proud that I’ve played a small part in giving someone a chance to do a public service in the borough.

Rick