Sheffield suspends Uber licence with company blaming administrative error

Sheffield City Council last month suspended Uber’s licence, saying that the current licence holder had failed to respond to requests about management.

The company, which is applying for a new licence, blamed an administrative error. It said it would appeal the suspension if that application is not determined in time.

A spokesperson for Sheffield said: “Uber is legally allowed to operate up to 18 December, and if it chooses to appeal this suspension it can continue to operate until the appeal is heard. If it decides against an appeal the suspension will come into force.

They added: “We received a new application, for a licence to operate taxis in Sheffield, from Uber Britannia Limited, on 18 October 2017 which we are currently processing.

“Any new application is dealt with by the Licensing department who will decide if those applying for the licence meet the criteria. It will only be referred to the licensing sub-committee if a decision by the committee is required.

“The legislation does not allow for the transfer of an operator’s licence.”

An Uber spokesperson said: “We informed Sheffield City Council on 5 October that we would need to change the name on our licence as the named individual would soon be leaving the company. The council told us they couldn’t change the name on the licence, as most other councils have done, and that we would instead have to apply for a new one.

“We submitted an application for a new licence on 16 October which continues to be processed. While we are in regular contact with the council, we did not receive the correspondence the council refers to as they sent the letters to an incorrect address. We hope this administrative error can be quickly resolved so we can continue serving tens of thousands of riders and drivers in Sheffield.

“If the new application can’t be resolved by 18 December we will of course submit an appeal so we can continue to serve people in Sheffield.”