Calls for tougher taxi rules to tackle loophole

FRESH CALLS have been made for a joint approach to taxi and private hire car licensing across Yorkshire after the latest suggestion that potentially “unscrupulous” drivers are evading stricter regulations by applying for permits outside their working areas.

A report has claimed that those who have had their licences revoked in places such as Rotherham – now claiming to be one of the most stringent licensing authorities in the country after taxi drivers were found to have played a prominent role in the town’s infamous child sex abuse scandal – have been applying for licences in other areas with “lax” procedures but then returning for business.

Transport for London’s (TfL) report sought local authority backing for new legislation to tackle the problem of cross-border drivers after national deregulation.

A Leeds councillor has now also called for a possible regionwide response after being contacted by drivers who were angered by a lack of enforcement.

Coun Billy Flynn, who sits on Leeds City Council’s Licensing Committee, said: “Although Leeds has not been involved in any of the recent child and young person sex exploitation cases the city must continue to apply the most rigorous standards to ensure it never occurs here.

“It would only take a marginal reduction in standards for unscrupulous drivers to take advantage.

This is not a difficult problem to resolve locally. It just needs every licensing authority in West Yorkshire (or the whole of Yorkshire) to agree to minimum qualifying standards before issuing a licence.”

Coun Flynn said efforts to “harmonise” licensing approaches by councils in West Yorkshire were in their “infancy”.

Local authorities have to ensure taxi and private hire licences are held only people who are by “fit and proper” – but not all apply the same standards. And the Deregulation Act 2015 allowed drivers with a private hire licence issued by any local authority to use it anywhere in England and Wales.

TfL’s report, circulated by Leeds City Council ahead of a meeting this month, claims drivers whose licences have been revoked “use the lax cross border hiring regulations to work in Rotherham despite not meeting the standards set by the council. It is Rotherham’s view that the ‘sole aim of these drivers is to circumvent the high standards that have been introduced’ which ‘will put the public at significant risk of harm’”.

Alan Pogorzelec, Rotherham Council’s licensing manager said: “We have been working with neighbouring councils to get consistent standards in the region and beyond. However, there are some places nationally where standards are not as high, and this means potentially someone from Rotherham can gain a private hire licence this way.”