It’s time government helped stop taxi piracy
WHEN you or your family get into a taxi, you assume that the taxi is safe and reliable, that someone has checked that the driver is someone you can trust with your personal welfare.
Here in Rochdale, that’s exactly what our council tries to ensure when it gives out Rochdale licences for drivers to drive taxis in Rochdale.
Yet recent figures show that up and down the country 330 alleged sexual assaults by taxi and mini cab drivers were reported to the police.
So what goes wrong?
Quite simply, not every taxi on local roads is a local taxi with a local driver.
In fact under the law now, anyone who gets a licence as a taxi driver anywhere in England can use that licence where they choose.
Most councils behave like Rochdale, trying to check that drivers in their area have a current DBS certificate and are fit and proper people to drive.
But some councils hand out licences as a way of making money.
It just can’t be right that a council sells licences on an industrial scale way beyond the needs of its local community to make money.
Many people will have noticed over recent years the large number of taxis with Rossendale badges and Rossendale drivers.
Astonishingly Rossendale has issued over 3,700 taxi licences; that is one licence for every 19 people who live there.
Nobody can believe the people in that area use taxis that much.
And, of course, those drivers don’t stick to Rossendale roads.
We see them not just in Rochdale but in Oldham and Manchester and even over in Sheffield and Bradford.
The Times newspaper reported last week that the licencing manager was suspended and left the job amongst allegations that Rossendale were not checking applications properly.
I expect that Rossendale will now agree to an independent inquiry to tell us if that was true or not.
For some years I have been trying to persuade national government to change our law on taxi licensing so that a council like ours can stop this taxi piracy on our roads, to insist that those driving here know Rochdale roads and have been checked out by our council.
The government has so far refused.
It’s time for them to think again and work with good councils to keep people safe.