ROAD TRAFFICHackney carriage - unlicensed driver parked on private land adjacent to public street - driver 'plying for hire in a street'Eastbourne Borough Council v Stirling and another: DC (Pill LJ and Bell J): 31 October 2000Each defendant had been found in their vehicles which were parked on the taxi rank on the west forecourt of Eastbourne railway station.

Neither defendant was licensed to ply for hire under s.37 of the Town Police Clauses Act 1847.

The council laid informations against them alleging that they had been plying for hire in a street without a licence, contrary to s.45 of the Act.

At trial the magistrate dismissed the informations on the ground that the station forecourt was not a 'street' within the meaning of s.38 of the Act, since it was private property.

The prosecutor appealed by way of case stated.Nicholas Hall (instructed by Chief Solicitor, Eastbourne Borough Council) for the prosecutor.

James King-Smith (instructed by Mayo & Perkins, Eastbourne) for the defendants.Held, allowing the appeals, that Young v Scampion [1989] RTR 95 established the principle that a vehicle positioned on private land in order to draw custom from the general public in an adjoining public street could be 'plying for hire in any street'; that a driver would be plying for hire in the street if his vehicle were so positioned that the offer of services was projected to and addressed to members of public in the street; and that since a vehicle parked in the station forecourt was likely to attract custom from members of the public using the adjoining street, the defendants were plying for hire in a street within the meaning of s.38.