Taxi association defends licensing work by council

A taxi association has defended City of Wolverhampton Council for processing large numbers of licences for drivers across the country.

It comes after the government announced out-of-area taxi work, where drivers get a licence in one place but operate mainly in another, will be overhauled after a sharp rise in licences from the authority.

The National Private Hire Taxi Association said the authority's "quick and efficient" process had earned them a huge influx in licence requests.

"Wolverhampton council is very, very strict and stringent and follows all of the taxi vetting process, with tests proving challenging to pass," Steve Wright, chair of the association, said.

In the last five years, Wolverhampton has tripled the number of private hire vehicles it has licensed to more than 30,000, a practice that is legal.

Wright, who has been campaigning for high standards in private hire for 50 years, said Wolverhampton's standards were "the highest in the country and diligent".

He stated that fast processes for taxi applications were needed after about 100,000 drivers dropped out of the industry after the pandemic.

"Many local authorities are absolutely awful at getting licences processed and done," he said.

Roger Tomlinson, who works for Tamworth Taxis, said the number of drivers working for the company had reduced by more than a third as Wolverhampton-licensed drivers worked in the town.

Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, claimed more than half of private hire vehicles operating in the region were licensed elsewhere, which made the industry unfair for local operators.

However, Wright said drivers working in areas other than Wolverhampton were probably local to another area and had just got their licence in the city.

"It's not true that you can walk in the door and get a licence, it's very, very hard to do so in Wolverhampton," he said.

A spokesperson for City of Wolverhampton Council stressed that it was illegal for it to refuse applicants a taxi licence "on the basis of where they live".

"Applicants are usually local to the area they drive in, but many have chosen to be licensed in Wolverhampton due to our efficient, yet rigorous, licensing process," they said.

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