Taxi Driver Online

Willaston councillor calls for taxi law change to safeguard women and children

https://thenantwichnews.co.uk/2026/07/0 ... -children/



A Willaston councillor has called on Cheshire East leaders to safeguard women and children by lobbying for a change in the law around taxi drivers licensed elsewhere to operate in the borough.

Cllr Allen Gage (pictured) says a report published by Baroness Casey last year noted taxis being used as a conduit and method for the systemic and organised rape of young and vulnerable girls across the UK.

He, along with Cllr Reg Kain of Alsager, have tabled a notice of motion to next week’s full council meeting urging Cheshire East to write to government.

They want the authority to express concern “at the broken and haphazard nature of the current licensing rules and request they be reviewed and amended with utmost expediency to make it a legal requirement that drivers must hold a personal licence in each ‘top tier’ local authority area in which they wish to collect passengers”.

They say: “Currently, drivers licensed in one local authority can operate cross-region.

“This creates a regulatory gap and can lead to various issues including public safety.

“When applying for a Cheshire East licence, the licensing team will oversee sensible safeguarding checks and, most importantly, licensing committee members have very strong powers available to them at their discretion to remove a licence should they deem it necessary.

“This is not possible if a taxi driver is licensed by another authority.

“As one of 12 recommendations in her report, Baroness Casey called for the immediate closing of this loophole.

“Almost a year later nothing has happened.”

The two councillors say the cross-county and cross-region operation “makes a mockery of safeguarding”.

They stress their motion is not an attack on taxi drivers and it also calls on the council to “formally express and extend its thanks, gratitude and respect to each and every taxi driver operating in the borough who is licensed in the borough”.

The motion also calls on Cheshire East’s licensing committee to explore and adopt the policy of Lichfield District Council, which requires drivers licensed by another council to notify the prospective customer that the driver and/or vehicle are licensed elsewhere before the booking is confirmed.

It is expected to be referred to cabinet for debate.

The meeting of the full council takes place on Wednesday July 15th at 11am at the SKA Observatory, Jodrell Bank.

_________________
IDFIMH

The *drivers* notify the customer before the booking is confirmed?

Don't think so, somehow, unless it's an owner/driver/operator.

Anyway, even assuming the above means *operator* rather than *driver*, it would be interesting to know how that works in practice, and how precisely it's communicated etc

[Please excuse the echo in here, but I'd done this yesterday based on the council's press release, and ended up saving it to my hard drive when the forum was, er, unresponsive for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon at the time when I often post stuff.]



Less usual for a council to issue press releases about standard tariff uplifts, as opposed to maybe a prosecution or court appeal, or whatever.

And this is also odd in several other respects. Don't want to be pedantic (because that's not like me at all ), but the sub-headline or strapline here is a bit pointless, because it's more or less identical to the opening paragraph in the main body of text.

But it's also interesting to the extent that it introduces the idea that the fares are *maximums*. And, unusually, that's repeated throughout the text, and 'maximum' appears 13 times in total

As for the substantive increases, that's not expressed too clearly, but it looks like a basic 10 per cent increase across the board. (The numbers are clear enough at the bottom, but it's not expressed too well in the first bullet point at the top.)

And someone forgot to include the link to the survey at the bottom. And it ain't me


Proposed changes to Somerset taxi fares

https://www.somerset.gov.uk/news/propos ... axi-fares/

Somerset Council has published proposed changes to maximum hackney carriage taxi fares across Somerset.

Somerset Council has published proposed changes to the maximum fares that hackney carriage taxis can charge.

Hackney carriage fares are calculated using an electronic meter installed in the vehicle. As the licensing authority, Somerset Council has the power to set the maximum fares that can be charged through a published table of fares. Drivers may choose to charge less than these maximum rates.

The current maximum fares were introduced in May 2024. Following a survey of licensed hackney carriage proprietors, in which 59% of respondents supported some form of increase, the Council is proposing changes that reflect inflationary pressures and changes in fuel costs since the current fares were introduced.

The proposed changes include:

A 10% increase to the maximum distance and waiting time charges.

A discretionary maximum booking fee of up to £10 for pre-booked journeys. The proposal aims to encourage drivers to accept bookings in rural areas, where drivers may need to travel significant distances before reaching a passenger.

No changes to the existing percentage multipliers for evenings, weekends, public holidays or journeys involving more than four passengers.

Retention of the existing maximum soiling charge and the ability to recover toll and clean air zone charges where applicable.

The proposed maximum standard tariff would increase from £4.60 to £5.06 for the first mile, with each additional tenth of a mile increasing from 30p to 33p. The maximum waiting time charge would increase from £1.00 to £1.10 for every completed two minutes.

Councillor Federica Smith-Roberts, Somerset Council’s Lead Member for Communities, said:

“Hackney carriages provide an important service for communities across Somerset, helping people get to work, medical appointments, shops and other essential destinations.

“The proposed changes seek to balance the rising costs faced by drivers with the need to keep fares fair for passengers. The maximum fares set the upper limit that licensed taxi drivers can charge, but individual taxi businesses remain free to set their rates below those levels. Under the legal process for setting hackney carriage fares, the Council must consider any objections received before a final decision is made

“If no objections are received, the proposed table of fares will take effect automatically.”

Responding to the proposed table of fares

As part of the statutory process, anyone who wishes to object to the proposed table of maximum fares can do so through Somerset Council’s Citizen Space survey. The survey asks for your name, whether you are responding as a resident, business, visitor or member of the licensed taxi trade, and your reason or reasons for objecting to the proposed table of fares.

The survey is available at: Maximum taxi fares – Somerset Council – Citizen Space

I think Uber does it in most cases i.e. tell the punter where the driver is licensed.

The thing is punters generally don't give a flying f***.

_________________
IDFIMH