Councils combine to improve taxi safety

Monday, 10 September 2018 07:00

Five West Yorkshire local authorities and York have agreed to a joint enforcement partnership scheme which they say will make it more difficult for taxi and private hire drivers to break the law.

Until now if one of the authorities checked a private hire or Hackney Carriage taxi licensed by another authority there was little they could do to stop it being driven illegally or unsafely.

The partnership approach means that if a driver is found to be carrying out illegal activities in any of the six areas, appropriate action may be taken against them by the authority they are working in at the time.

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council Executive Member for Healthy People and Places, said: “When you get in a private hire vehicle or taxi you should be confident that the vehicle is safe, well maintained and that the driver is licensed, insured and trustworthy.

“The only way to guarantee that is to have a strict set of rules that are regularly enforced. 

“It makes absolute sense to carry out cross border enforcement – when we travel by private hire or taxi we do not restrict our journeys to one area,  so licensing authorities shouldn’t restrict how we enforce the rules around driving those vehicles. 

“It is worth saying that the majority of taxi and private hire drivers and their vehicles are safe and comply with the law.

“For them this change will have no impact. It is those who believe that the law doesn’t apply to them, who selfishly drive without considering the safety of their passengers, who will notice a change.”

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