A meeting heard this week that some drivers had been unlawfully refusing to take customers on short journeys, with the excuse that they could not provide a cashless payment option.

Jason Agar, the council’s taxi licensing manager told the regulatory committee that taxi drivers themselves had been complaining that others had been refusing £3 or £4 jobs.

Not entirely clear whether they're not doing the short runs because they don't have a card reader, or if it's just an excuse to refuse the short trips. So a bit like Fife Council's complaint the other week.

But MK addressing the issue by making readers compulsory, while Fife Council simply appealed to the trade's better nature

I think we have the same problem up and down the country on all ranks where cards payments aren’t compulsory. We have several drivers here that won’t accept jobs under £10 if it’s on the card. They say there not refusing the job, just the method of payment. The council have issued a statement saying this is basically a refusal of a job and is illegal but until they organise a ‘test’ purchase or receive an official complaint from a passenger they still do it.

But drivers will only have to comply when their own licence comes up for renewal. It will take one year for all the taxi fleet to be included because of the staggered nature of individual licence renewal dates.

Proprietors have 21 days to appeal but once that appeal period is over if they are found to be in breach, the vehicle will be suspended, the committee papers reveal.