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Wolves LOs find who-knows-what in triple airport stopchecks
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Author:  StuartW [ Sun Feb 08, 2026 5:57 pm ]
Post subject:  Wolves LOs find who-knows-what in triple airport stopchecks
Usual from Wolverhampton - best not to say what they actually found :-o


Wolverhampton City Council wrote:
Yesterday, Compliance Officers got wet, wet, wet in torrential weather conditions at three regional Airports Birmingham, Manchester & East Midlands in coordinated licensing operations making sure everyone was getting home/away safe #CrossBorderCompliance #PartnershipWorking


Image

Image

High-res alternatives here, for what it's worth :-o

The location of the photo with the white cars is self-evident. But the precise location of the other photo could probably be pinpointed via Google maps. If anyone is feeling bored :lol:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAisfToWwAA ... name=large

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HAisfWvWUAA ... name=large
Author:  StuartW [ Sun Feb 08, 2026 5:58 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Wolves LOs find who-knows-what in triple airport stopche
Came across that via Taxi Point, where of course you get the inside track on it all...

Or, additional arms and legs, depending on how you view these things :wink:

And a rare grammatical clanger in a Taxi Point article - or at least I spotted *one* while quickly skimming the piece :-o


OUT-OF-AREA COMPLIANCE: Wolverhampton licensed private hire checks carried out at THREE major UK airports

https://www.taxi-point.co.uk/post/wolve ... k-airports

Compliance officers from Wolverhampton Council have carried out coordinated taxi and private hire vehicle enforcement operations at THREE major UK airports as part of ongoing cross-border licensing activity.

The checks took place at Birmingham Airport, Manchester Airport and East Midlands Airport, with Wolverhampton’s Public Protection team working alongside partner authorities.

Posting on social media, the council said: “Yesterday, Compliance Officers got wet, wet, wet in torrential weather conditions at three regional Airports Birmingham, Manchester & East Midlands in coordinated licensing operations.”

The council said the aim of the activity was to ensure licensed vehicles were operating lawfully and that passengers were travelling safely. The post added that officers were “making sure everyone was getting home/away safe” during the airport operations.

    Council officers joined cross-border licensing operations at Birmingham, Manchester and East Midlands airports amid ongoing scrutiny of out-of-area taxi activity

Airports remain a particular focus for licensing teams due to the high concentration of private hire vehicles operating across local authority boundaries. Enforcement activity at transport hubs has long been used by councils to monitor compliance where vehicles licensed elsewhere are working outside their home areas.

Wolverhampton is one of the largest taxi and private hire licensing authorities in England, issuing licences to drivers and vehicles operating nationwide. The council has consistently works in partnership with other authorities to maintain standards under the current licensing framework.

The enforcement work comes against the backdrop of a national Government consultation examining whether taxi and private hire licensing should move away from individual councils to larger transport authorities. One of the stated aims of the review is to address enforcement and oversight challenges linked to cross-border working.

Wolverhampton Council did not confirm how many vehicles were checked or whether any enforcement action was taken during the airport operations.
Author:  StuartW [ Sun Feb 08, 2026 10:45 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Wolves LOs find who-knows-what in triple airport stopche
By the way, was looking at the licensing registers earlier on, and looks like numbers are still increasing:

Drivers - 54,347

Vehicles - 36,348

Operators - 481

Could be wrong, but I'm sure they're up on the last time I looked. (Posted precise figures on here last year, I'm sure, but can't find them now :roll: )

Note that these figures contain the whole lot, thus HCVs, HC badges and PHVs working locally.

There are around 120 HCVs, and at a rough guess maybe 1,000 PHVs working locally, so that would still be 35,000 or so working cross-border.

And maybe 53,000 drivers working cross-border, adjusting for HC badges and PHDs working locally? :?
Author:  StuartW [ Mon Feb 09, 2026 8:26 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Wolves LOs find who-knows-what in triple airport stopche
Found some earlier numbers from two different points in time, but one set is only shown as rounded to the nearest 1,000, so I've rounded the other set and yesterday's figures for easy comparison.

Unfortunately the first two sets of numbers are from periods fairly close together - early to late summer 2024 - so, as a whole they're not really the best set of numbers for identifying a trend. But I'm sure the latest set of figures are still higher than those from maybe six months ago, so the trend has been inexorably upward :-o

But, more to the point, the first two sets of figures here are from around the time the council said they'd be trying to 'throttle back' applications. But the trend is still upward...


Vehicles

June 2024 - 31k
August 2024 - 33k
February 2026 - 36k


Drivers

June 2024 - 45k
August 2024 - 47k
February 2026 - 54k


Operators

June 2024 - 430
August 2024 - 444
February 2026 - 481



And, for what it's worth, these were the precise figures from June 2024

June 2024
Vehicles - 30,793
Drivers - 45,187
Operators - 430
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