A PARISH council fears plans to increase regulation on Dales taxi firms will threaten their viability.

Hawes and High Abbotside Parish Council has responded to a Richmondshire District Council consultation on new taxi and private hire policy with concerns over increased bureaucracy.

Leader of Hawes and High Abbotside Parish Council, Cllr John Blackie said that some of the revised policy was "inappropriately over-authoritarian, over-prescriptive and over-bureaucratic".

He said: “A degree of flexibility in applying the policy is therefore essential and without this there is likely to be a constraint placed on what is an important local source of employment, particularly self-employment, in the local economy on trades that supply an important service to our communities.

“A regime of absolute compliance will also discourage new starters from establishing taxi and private hire businesses, which in turn will be detrimental to the economic and social well-being of local communities.

“There are for example no taxi services or ranks beyond the triangle of Richmond, Colburn and Catterick and private hire services are very few and far between in the rural areas.”

The district council report outlining the policy states: “Better regulation means maintaining and improving consumer protection and at the same time providing the right environment for business to thrive.

“These vehicles provide a service to the public, so it is appropriate to set criteria for the standard of the external and internal conditions of the vehicle, provided that these are not unreasonably onerous.”