Overview
- Ashford Borough Council instructed Flying Horse landlord Paul Hartfield to stop giving customers lifts home in his cab after ruling the service required private hire licensing.
- Since launching in November, the scheme provided about 100 rides and raised at least £700 in voluntary donations for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
- Hartfield says he made no personal profit from the lifts and covered the cost of the vehicle, fuel and insurance himself.
- Officials said licensing rules apply even without direct payment, citing potential “commercial benefit,” and confirmed they are in discussions with Hartfield after the intervention followed local media coverage.
- Regulars called the decision “jobsworth nonsense,” and Reform leader Nigel Farage criticized the move, as the landlord links the row to wider cost pressures facing pubs.