Taxi Driver Online

Third of taxis in Denbighshire have defects, spot-check finds

One in three taxis in Denbighshire have defects, according to a council spot-check procedure. Outside the usual vehicle compliance testing, ad-hoc checks were conducted on 106 taxis at a variety of locations, including schools, taxi ranks, and at the roadside.

The checks revealed that one-third, or 33%, of taxis had defects. The revelation was made at a Denbighshire County Council licensing meeting this week when officer Ian Millington updated members of the licensing committee.

Mr Millington, though, claimed that the overwhelming number of defects related to minor "non-safety elements" of vehicles. He said: “Enforcement officers are out and about, conducting checks on schools, vehicle ranks, taxi ranks, and at the roadside.

“106 vehicles were stopped. We had a third of those with defects.

"Now that is quite a lot, but it should be remembered that a lot of the defects related to minor non-safety aspects, things like the fire extinguisher being out of date. They (taxi drivers) need to have, as part of the compliance, a fire extinguisher that is in date. If you haven’t got that, you fail the compliance.”

At the same meeting, councillors learned Denbighshire Council had received 20 taxi-related complaints during the last year. The complaints varied from unlicensed or non-compliant vehicles, illegal parking, careless driving, abusive and inappropriate behaviour, and smoking in a cab.

The committee was told either appropriate action was taken or that the matters were ongoing. The committee also learned that one driver had their licence revoked and another had their licence suspended.

During the year officers issued 23 vehicle suspension notices. Whilst some of these related to compliance failures at programmed inspections or roadside checks, others were because of collisions or vehicles awaiting repairs.

The committee heard that there are 219 Hackney carriage vehicles in Denbighshire, 10 of which are wheelchair accessible, and 49 private hire vehicles, 10 of which are also wheelchair accessible.

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