Council accused of 'laid back approach' to taxi licences following reported delayshttps://www.champnews.com/story.asp?id=GN4_ART_1981134SEFTON Council has been accused by a local councillor of having a “laid back approach” to dealing with taxi licence requests following claims made by drivers that it takes too long to get approval.
The Champion reported recently how some private hire drivers have been so fed up of waiting that they have been getting their licences from other councils, including the City of Wolverhampton Council.
Dukes Cllr John Pugh, who is the Lib-Dem opposition leader on Sefton, believes the council needs to be doing much more in order to prevent local taxi drivers being forced to spend their licence fees on other local authorities.
He said: “If a taxi driver experiences an unnecessary delay of only a week while a licence renewal is processed, that’s still a week's work lost. That is critical given the current cost of living crisis.
“Life has become very tough for taxi drivers first with the effects of Covid and now with the massive hike in fuel prices.
“Many are finding it very hard to make any money at all without working ridiculous hours and are opting for other employment.
“A delay in licence renewal can cost a taxi driver substantial loss of income and serious delays have occurred.”
In a recent report published by Sefton Council, entitled ‘Taxi Licensing Performance Report’, it gave an “overview of the work carried out by the Taxi Licensing Service”.
However, Cllr Pugh claims the report “gives no indication of how quickly or slowly requests from the trade are dealt with- instead just lists the number of applications received.”
He added: “To tell the world what you do but not long how it takes you to do it is simply not a 'performance report’. No benchmarks are given. No comparisons are made and no standards or timescales are set.
“This will do very little to quieten critics of Sefton and seems tone deaf to the concerns of the taxi trade whose fees from the private hire and hackney trade help support the Sefton licensing department.”
There are no laws requiring drivers to apply for licences through their own council.
A Delta taxi driver recently told the Champion that Sefton Council is losing out on the fees, which is £140 for a new plate and around £150 for the licence.
He said: “Sefton Council say they are skint and no wonder! Why is this money going to other councils? I’m a taxpayer in Sefton and this money should be put to good use for our area, not in Wolverhampton!
“I work for Delta but I’m aware of other taxi firms who are doing the same thing. I find the whole thing astonishing. You can’t blame the drivers. They have families to feed and they just want the fastest way.”
A Sefton Council spokesperson said: “Between April 20121 and March 2022 Sefton Council’s One Stop Shop dealt with over 14,000 taxi vehicle and driver license applications.
“Auto-renewal of licences put in place during the COVID pandemic ended in March and we now operate an appointment only service.
“To make this easy for drivers, we write to them ahead of when their renewal is required, to confirmation the date and time of any appointment required.
“Unfortunately, due to the numbers of drivers are attending renewal appointments without the evidence we have told them we need, or the newly required HMRC tax-check codes, we are having to make multiple appointments for them which can slow down the process. We would, therefore, urge drivers to read the letters we send out carefully when they receive them.”
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