Taxi Driver Online

Nothing particularly out of the ordinary here - except that it's the first time I've ever seen the sums reported in terms of the actual increase to fees, as opposed to the new and/or old fees themselves

But therein lies the clanger - a casual reader of this could be forgiven for thinking that the sums below are the actual new licence fees, as opposed to the amount by which they've increased.

To be fair, just about everyone involved in the trade will be able to work that out for themselves (and the PHTM and DM News versions make it clear precisely what's going on).

But this is a generalist news site, thus aimed at members of the public...


Wrexham taxi drivers could face licence fee rises of up to 20%

https://wrexham.com/news/wrexham-taxi-d ... 92095.html

Taxi and private hire drivers in Wrexham face licence fee increases of up to 20 per cent under proposals going before the council’s environmental licensing committee on Monday, 18 May.

The rises, which would apply across all hackney carriage and private hire licence categories, follow a reassessment of officer hourly rates within the council’s Public Protection service that found costs had risen by around 20 per cent.

Fees were last increased on April 1, 2024 following what the local authority described as an “extensive assessment of the costs associated with the provision of the service.” A further review was carried out a year in spring 2025 when a decision was made not to raise the fees.

Monday’s report notes that last summer the local authority carried out a reassessment of the officer hourly rates within Public Protection, which are used to calculate hackney carriage and private hire licence fees.

According to the report, the reassessment reviewed every cost associated with employing officers including salaries, transport, equipment, training, administrative and HR, ICT, legal and management support.

That exercise concluded with an increase of around 20 per cent in the hourly rates used for fee calculations.

A further reassessment of the licence fees themselves, carried out in autumn 2025 using the updated rates, resulted in proposed increases of between 10% and 20%.

The proposed changes going before committee next week, are:

• Drivers licence £20 (three-year licence)

• Vehicle licence £30 (one-year licence only)

• Small operator £22 (five-year licence)

• Large operator £64 (five-year licence)

The impact on school transport costs is described in the report as being negligible.”

The report continues on to say: “It needs to be remembered that most driver licences are issued for three years and most operator licences are issued for five years.

“The Council’s cost recovery policy is clear that for all chargeable services where the Authority has control of the fees set that all costs associated with the service provided should be recovered in the fee.

“Proposed fees will be published in accordance with the Local Government Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1976. If any objections are received these will be brought to this Committee for consideration and for a final decision to be made on the implementation of the proposed fee increases.

"If there are no objections received in response to the publication of the proposed fees then those fees can be implemented without further reference to this Committee.”

The report adds that the proposed increases would help to “protect the financial position” of the local authority.

If approved by councillors, the proposed fees must be publicly advertised before they can take effect, and any objections received would bring the matter back to committee for a final decision.

The proposals will be discussed by members of Wrexham Council’s licensing committee on Monday, 18 May.