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.

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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***.

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IDFIMH

I'm amazed Taxi Point didn't include your quote in this piece, Sussex

Or at least a variation thereto

But even ignoring several questionable statements in this article, the answer to the headline question is surely a resounding NO

And, for a start, the 'little known policy' at the kick off is surely a tad overblown - I'm sure such policies date back several years, and it's not just Lichfield.


Could Lichfield policy could become blueprint for tackling cross-border taxi licensing nationwide?

https://www.taxi-point.co.uk/post/could ... nationwide

A little-known licensing policy introduced by Lichfield District Council is gaining attention after being cited by Cheshire East Council as a potential model for improving transparency when passengers are allocated taxis or private hire vehicles licensed by another authority.

The policy does not prevent cross-border working, which is permitted under existing legislation. Instead, it requires licensed private hire operators to tell customers before their journey if the booking has been allocated to a driver and vehicle licensed by a different council, ensuring passengers know which authority is responsible for regulating that vehicle and handling complaints.

The measure was formally adopted as part Lichfield District Council’s Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy 2025-2030, which came into force in April 2025. Under section 10.35 of the policy, operators must notify customers whenever a booking is “allocated or reallocated to a vehicle licensed by another Council”.

The policy goes further by prescribing the wording operators must use. It states customers must be told: “The driver and vehicle allocated to this journey are not licensed by Lichfield District Council which means they are not able to deal with any complaints about the driver or vehicle. The driver and vehicle are licensed by X Council and you will instead need to direct any complaints to them.”

The requirement applies regardless of how the booking is made, whether by telephone, online, through an app or in person. Operators are also required to keep a separate register of bookings allocated to vehicles licensed by another authority, creating an audit trail for enforcement purposes.

The policy is notable because it does not seek to restrict cross-border hiring, something local authorities cannot generally do under current taxi legislation. Instead, it focuses on transparency, ensuring passengers understand that the vehicle arriving may not be regulated by the council where they made the booking. This is particularly relevant because complaints about licensed vehicles and drivers must usually be dealt with by the authority that issued the licence, not the authority where the journey takes place.

Lichfield has also attached enforcement consequences to the requirement. Its compliance and enforcement framework allows the council to suspend an operator’s licence for up to 28 days if they fail to notify passengers that the allocated vehicle is licensed by another council. The notification duty is treated as a specific licensing condition rather than guidance.

The approach comes as cross-border licensing continues to receive national attention. The Department for Transport’s current framework allows private hire operators to subcontract bookings and for drivers licensed by one authority to undertake work in another, provided legal booking requirements are met. However, concerns have grown among some councils that passengers are often unaware the vehicle collecting them is licensed elsewhere.

Those concerns have become increasingly prominent following Baroness Casey’s review into group-based child sexual exploitation and a subsequent parliamentary inquiry examining whether taxi licensing should be standardised across England. The Transport Committee has identified cross-border licensing and inconsistent local standards as key areas for investigation.

It is against that backdrop that Cheshire East Council is now considering adopting Lichfield’s approach. A motion due before councillors asks the Licensing Committee to explore introducing the same requirement, meaning customers would be informed before their booking is confirmed if their driver or vehicle is licensed by another authority.

While the proposal would not alter the legal ability of out-of-area drivers to work in Cheshire East, supporters argue it would provide passengers with clearer information about who regulates their journey and where any complaints should be directed. Critics may argue the policy adds another administrative step for operators without addressing the wider legislative framework that permits cross-border working in the first place.

For councils seeking greater oversight without waiting for national reform, Lichfield’s notification policy is emerging as one of the few local measures available within existing licensing powers.

Can't see much in the way of any additional burden, unless Wolverhampton and Knowsley et al [i]don't[/i] require operators to keep a register of bookings allocated to vehicles.


Not really


That's about it, I'd guess

It all sounds a bit like Taxi Point doing Lichfield's and Cheshire East's PR and wishful thinking for them

As indeed Taxi Point had regularly done as regards Wolverhampton's feeble or non-existent enforcement, but made to sound like they're the most on-the-ball licensing authority in the country.