Taxi Driver Online

Not sure if my thread title is just sarcasm, or a statement of fact, or wot

Not much here to pick holes in, though, so I'm very disappointed

And even the 'prohibitions' (presumably what's normally called a suspension, or whatever) seem quite small beer - the tyre doesn't sound the worst, and the tints presumably just some kind of film that could be removed at the roadside. And the 'nonstandard' number plate probably the kind of thing that's the norm for boy racer types.

There is one unusual feature, though, that I can't recall seeing in a press release like this before


Taxi inspections carried out to ensure safety of passengers

https://www.warwickdc.gov.uk/news/artic ... passengers

Warwick District Council, in partnership with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) and Warwickshire Police, have continued to carry out inspections of the district’s private hire vehicles.

A total of 53 licensed private hire and hackney carriage vehicles were inspected on Thursday 12 February 2026 to ensure they were safe and legal. The teams were assisted by mechanics from the Council’s nominated garages, H M Bryan and Sons Ltd and Tyreman Ltd.

The inspections did find a small number of vehicles to be at fault, with immediate action taken by the Council and its partners to remove the vehicles from the road.

1 One vehicle had an inside tyre tread below minimum. The vehicle was immediately prohibited. The Private Hire vehicle had its plate suspended and follow-up will take place to ensure the vehicle is in a road worthy condition before the suspension is lifted.

2 One vehicle with illegal tinted windows on the front of the vehicle. The vehicle was immediately prohibited. This prohibition was then lifted with the vehicle still on site when the tint was removed. The driver received a fixed penalty notice. The number plates were also nonstandard, and this will be followed up by Enforcement officers.

3 One vehicle had an indicator light not working. The vehicle was immediately prohibited, and this will only be lifted once repaired.

Of the remaining 49 vehicles, 14 had minor licensing infringements which will be followed up by Licensing officers.

Councillor Jim Sinnott, Portfolio Holder for Safer, Healthier and Active Communities, said:

“I would like to express my thanks to the Council’s Licensing team, the DVSA, Warwickshire Police and the nominated garages for once again carrying out these inspections.

“Taxi drivers play an important role in providing transport to those who need it, so it’s vital that they keep their vehicles safe and legal and are fully aware of what’s required of them, protecting both their passengers and the wider community. It’s great to see that most of the vehicles inspected adhered to their licensing conditions. For those that didn’t, our officers will be closely following this up to ensure compliance.

“The Council takes its licensing responsibilities seriously and will not hesitate to take action to guarantee the public’s safety.”

Can't ever recall 'nominated garages' being involved in this kind of thing before. Or, at least, if they have been involved they haven't been named like this.

On the other hand, there's actually one big thing that isn't mentioned at all, and seems to be missing. I mean, 53 cars checked, but no mention of the W-word or cross-border?

In fact, just a few months ago the same council issued a press release all about a joint enforcement operation with Wolverhampton LOs, and actually quoted one of them, which is also unusual:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=41891

And in May 2024 Warwickshire *police* actually issued a press release about cross-border checks in the area with Wolverhampton LOs, which also quotes a senior Wolverhampton licensing official. And which doesn't even seem to mention the *local* council

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=40439

Just noticed one big hole, though, when putting the number in the thread title - maybe I've missed an important detail, but shouldn't the 'remaining' number of vehicles be 50?

Didn't even check the numbers first time round, because you'd assume it would be easy enough to subtract three from 53 and get 50 rather than 49

That's another basic English clanger as well. That's like saying they're continuing to carry out inspections on apples, then immediately saying they inspected a total of 53 apples and pears

I give up

Some cool photos on the council's Facebook page as well

https://scontent.fgla2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/ ... e=69969062

https://scontent.fgla2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/ ... e=6996941E

https://scontent.fgla2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/ ... e=69967060

https://scontent.fgla2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/ ... e=6996707C

Maybe they are the ones who undertake the council tests.

_________________
IDFIMH

I suspect that didn't stop any as they don't have powers to check them.

_________________
IDFIMH

The Taxi Point rewrite is even worse as regards the arithemetic - at four different points it specifically refers to the fact that three cars were prohibited, but still manges to come up with 53 - 3 = 49


Council taxi and private hire blitz pulls three cabs off the road in safety crackdown

https://www.taxi-point.co.uk/post/counc ... -crackdown

Warwick District Council has removed three licensed vehicles from the road following a joint enforcement operation with the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency and Warwickshire Police.

A total of 53 licensed private hire and hackney carriage vehicles were inspected on Thursday 13 February 2026 to ensure they met safety and licensing requirements. Mechanics from the Council’s nominated garages, H M Bryan and Sons Ltd and Tyreman Ltd, assisted officers during the roadside checks.

The operation resulted in three vehicles being immediately prohibited due to safety-related defects. One private hire vehicle was found to have an inside tyre tread below the legal minimum. The vehicle was immediately prohibited and its private hire plate suspended. The Council confirmed that follow-up action will take place to ensure the vehicle is returned to a roadworthy condition before the suspension is lifted.

A second vehicle was discovered to have illegal tinted windows on the front of the vehicle. That vehicle was also immediately prohibited. The prohibition was lifted at the roadside once the tint was removed, but the driver received a fixed penalty notice. Officers also identified non-standard number plates on the same vehicle, which will be subject to further investigation by enforcement officers.

A third vehicle was found with a faulty indicator light. It too was immediately prohibited and will not be permitted to return to service until the defect has been repaired and the prohibition lifted.

Of the remaining 49 vehicles inspected, 14 were found to have minor licensing infringements. These issues will be followed up by the Council’s licensing officers. The Council did not specify the nature of those infringements but confirmed that they did not warrant immediate prohibition.

Joint inspection exercises of this kind form part of ongoing compliance work aimed at ensuring licensed vehicles operating within the district meet both national road safety standards and local licensing conditions.

Warwick District Council has not indicated whether further joint inspections are planned in the coming weeks, but similar exercises have been used by councils across the UK to reinforce standards within the taxi and private hire sector.

Councillor Jim Sinnott, Portfolio Holder for Safer, Healthier and Active Communities, said: “I would like to express my thanks to the Council’s Licensing team, the DVSA, Warwickshire Police and the nominated garages for once again carrying out these inspections.

“Taxi drivers play an important role in providing transport to those who need it, so it’s vital that they keep their vehicles safe and legal and are fully aware of what’s required of them, protecting both their passengers and the wider community. It’s great to see that most of the vehicles inspected adhered to their licensing conditions. For those that didn’t, our officers will be closely following this up to ensure compliance.

“The Council takes its licensing responsibilities seriously and will not hesitate to take action to guarantee the public’s safety.”

Yes, I was kind of assuming that, but still can't recall anything like this explicitly mentioning such a garage

Maybe, but police and DVSA were there, and the things that they did find was police and DVSA stuff that doesn't require LO involvement - tints, number plates, tyres and indicators

And, who knows, maybe cross-border cars were involved, but they just didn't mention that because there were no Wolves LOs on the ground.