ON FEBRUARY 4, the local council’s licensing committee will discuss whether there should be any increase in the number of Hackney carriage licences to allow more taxis on the roads of Basingstoke.

There have been no additional licences in the town since 1992, the present number being 46, and a recent survey indicated there was a need for an increase in the amount of taxis in the borough.

Britain saw its first motorised taxis in the London area, when accumulator drive 3.5hp electric cabs were operated by the London Electric Cab Company of Lambeth in August 1897. They had an average speed of nine miles per hour and a range of up to 30 miles.

Unfortunately, a series of mishaps, ending in a fatal crash, and reports of drunken drivers in the cabs, resulted in the firm selling off all its vehicles.

The police refused to licence any more cabs until May 1904, when the first petrol-driven taxi was allowed on to the roads, operated by the London Express Motor Service.

Their fares were 8d a mile (now 4p) which was the same price as a gallon of petrol in those days.

The word cab comes from the cabriolets – one horse vehicles – which plied for passengers in London from 1823.

In Basingstoke, the term “taxis” did not come into use until the 1920s, when car hire firms realised that not everyone could drive, and customers needed individual transport in comfort and not in the back of goods vans, which occurred frequently.

Two such business people, Mr A H Dyke of New Road, and Mr F G Edwards of Victoria Street, helped people to travel across the town and on to their destinations for a certain fare.

Twenty years – and a world war – later, the town had nearly a dozen car hire businesses with some form of taxi service included.

One man, William Grant, started a taxi service in 1931 in Sarum Hill, with one car, running it singlehanded. Due to ill-health he retired in 1957, and died in 1965 aged 70.

Another businessman, Alfred Stowell, who ran a car-hire service and garage in the Worting Road from 1946, also decided to have a taxi service, and with the help of his wife and his father, he acquired the Dykes Hire Service (next to the Page’s Almshouses in New Road) in 1955. He re-organised the taxi fleet, installed radio-controlled equipment in all the vehicles, and ran a 24-hour service.

By 1964 he had a fleet of 50 cars – all Vauxhalls (Victors, Veloxes and Vivas) in Persian blue. But within a year Mr Stowell had closed down his taxi service and concentrated on running a funeral service at his Downsland Court site in Worting Road, where the business is still run. Mr Stowell died in 1969.

The present amount of taxis in the town consist of saloon cars and Hackney carriages, some operated by individual owners and others by larger concerns, such as Grassby’s, most of which have facilities in their cabs for wheelchairs.

The need for more taxis in Basingstoke depends on whether the public can find a taxi rank that has taxis. The Church Street and bus station ranks rarely have taxis, compared with the railway station rank, which usually has several waiting, so this matter needs to be dealt with straight away.

To obtain a taxi at the Top of The Town, people have to call into the Winton Square or Joice’s Yard taxi offices, or phone for a cab to collect them where they are.

Taxis are an essential part of the community and much thought must go into the decision to increase the amount of these vehicles on the roads, for access to them is the most important factor.