London wants to license growing number of rickshaws

London's pedal-powered rickshaws, loved by tourists but loathed by taxi drivers, are to face a crackdown to prevent them gridlocking streets around the capital's West End nightlife hotspots.

Ken Livingstone's Transport for London authority will this week begin a consultation on a licensing regime for pedicabs, which have soared in numbers over the last six years.

The authority's board has voted to seek legislation allowing traffic wardens to put tickets on illegally parked rickshaws. The new rules would force drivers to register for training and criminal record checks and would ban them from blocking the capital's narrow side streets.

London has an estimated 350 rickshaws and they have also sprung up in Oxford, Manchester and Edinburgh.

There are believed to be seven companies operating them in the capital, although nobody is sure of the exact number because they are not subject to any rules.

Taxi drivers went to court last year in an attempt to get pedicabs outlawed, claiming they were breaching an 1869 act of parliament which gave black cabs a monopoly on soliciting for passengers on London's streets.

But a high court judge threw out the challenge, ruling instead that a rickshaw amounted to a "stagecoach", and was legal as long as it charged individual fares for each passenger.

One of the first rickshaw operators was Bugbugs, a non-profit organisation established in 1998 with the intention of creating environmentally friendly work for unemployed youngsters.

Bugbugs' trustee and founder Chris Smallwood, one of the leading advocates for licensing, said: "Taxi drivers leave a big hole - there aren't enough of them.

"Pedicabs are quite good as a small part of an integrated transport policy because they're green, and they're a bit of fun. But we need regulation to ensure all operators are subject to a code of conduct."

Pedicabs are generally used by visitors for short journeys. Critics say they routinely levy rates equivalent to £25 per mile on unsuspecting tourists. In many cases, drivers pay a nightly fee to lease the vehicles from operators and then pocket the fares.

Westminster's Conservative-controlled council has urged the mayor to subject pedicabs to the same rules as taxis and minicabs.

But the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association has vowed to fight them off the streets. Its general secretary, Bob Oddy, believes rickshaws are "deathtraps" which tip over if they touch the kerb or take corners at speed. He said: "It's just a question of time before somebody gets killed."

Mr Oddy said rickshaws did not represent a commercial threat to London's 30,000 black taxis. He said: "They're not a challenge to us and they clearly never will be. We don't want them because they're a bloody nuisance.

"They form rings of steel three-deep around the theatres and block fire exits. Licensing won't make any difference at all - we want them banned."