Evening Gazette
September 8, 2006, Friday
HEADLINE: Euro taxi fears
BYLINE: Naomi Paylor
Concerns have been raised over the future safety of taxi passengers in Stockton.
The town's licensing committee has agreed to consider applications from Eastern Europeans but some taxi drivers believe criminals could "slip through the net".
Foreign drivers would undergo their country's equivalent of a Criminal Record Bureau check.
But Stockton drivers say criminal checks in Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic may not be as stringent as British tests and job seekers could produce fraudulent documentation.
The chairman of Stockton's Hackney Carriage Drivers' Association, Mark Strange, said: "Taxi drivers here are refused for the smallest of things and go through the most rigorous checks.
"Even now we know there is illegal activity going on with people producing fake driving licences but at least we can rely on the CRB checks here."
At the committee meeting at the town hall, principal licensing officer Mick Vaines said applications would be subject to a statutory declaration, full medical examination, Driving Standards Agency taxi drivers test, law and local licensing tests and criminal checks.
David Walker, secretary of the association, said bringing in Eastern European drivers will only exacerbate this situation: "There are already too many drivers. I have nothing against them whatsoever but we need to be able to make a living."
The Stockton Hackney Carriage Drivers' Association is holding a meeting in the Queen's Social Club, Thornaby on Wednesday at 7pm to discuss their concerns.
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