Taxi Driver Online

COUNCIL bosses are set to adopt new guidelines on taxi drivers’ criminal convictions.

Blackburn with Darwen council’s licensing committee, chaired by Lib Dem councillor Sajid Ali, is considering the move to “promote consistency” among different areas.

It comes after the Lancashire Telegraph revealed a taxi driver had been granted a licence despite a recent conviction for a violent assault.

In a separate investigation, we also uncovered a string of offences committed by cabbies – including selling an offensive weapon, fraud and being drunk and disorderly – who had nonetheless been granted licences in the behind-closed-doors meetings.

Now the guidelines currently used by Greater Manchester councils, which go into more detail than those in force in Blackburn with Darwen, are expected to be adopted.

According to a report presented to the licensing committee, 80 per cent of the cases where drivers have appealed against decisions based on the conviction guidelines have come out in favour of the council.

They instruct councillors to balance public safety against the suffering of a driver whose licence has been revoked.

The revised guidelines detail specific offences where a licence should not be granted if it occurred within a set number of years.