Telford taxi drivers raise privacy concerns over free in-cab CCTV schemehttps://www.shropshirestar.com/news/tel ... me-9253240Taxi drivers in Telford & Wrekin have shown a reluctance to have free CCTV installed in their cabs because of privacy worries when the vehicles are used as personal family cars, a meeting heard.
Some 48 licensed private hire vehicles and hackney carriages have had the safety cameras fitted since the scheme was launched in December 2022 with funding from the borough's community safety partnership.
With around 400 licences in the borough, a councillor wondered why more were not taking part in the scheme.
Councillor Peter Scott (Independent, Newport West) asked: "It's good that 48 have taken it up - is there any reason some don't?
"It's an excellent scheme and it will make people feel safer, particularly the ladies."
A council officer said they were getting the message out that footage is only used following an incident or complaint.
The meeting of the community scrutiny committee was told that some private hire vehicles are also used as personal private vehicles.
"Some of the taxi drivers don't feel comfortable having CCTV on because they think it would record every journey and they feel it's an invasion of privacy," said a council official.
"But we are getting the message out there. We only ever take footage from CCTV from inside a vehicle if there was a complaint or incident. It would be related to their work."
Councillor Giles Luter (Labour, Ercall) said the roll out of CCTV in taxis is a "positive start and if we can encourage more people to get involved I think it makes especially women feel more comfortable travelling around. It's an excellent initiative.”
Chairing the meeting on Thursday (Oct 1, 2026), Councillor Elise Davies (Labour, Malinslee & Dawley Bank) agreed that it is "an amazing initiative."
Committee members were looking into the night time economy and how the council and others work to keep people safe.
The borough supports a Taxi Marshal scheme, Street Pastors and the use of data and intelligence to identify hotspots associated with licensed premises, taxis and community safety concerns, targeted enforcement and preventative interventions.
The council also works in partnership with West Mercia Police on vehicle stop operations, and has held a reciprocal arrangement with Wolverhampton Council, enabling borough officials to inspect and suspend Wolverhampton-licensed vehicles.
During 2025, 18 breach of condition notices were issued to Telford vehicle proprietors, requiring identified defects or compliance issues to be rectified.
These breaches included failures to have private hire vehicle plates fixed correctly, a defective headlamp and drivers not wearing their private hire vehicle lanyards.
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