Wolverhampton Council intends to cut taxi licence applications

In response to recent sex abuse cases involving licensed drivers across the UK and to prevent reputational damage to the council,it is being reported that the City of Wolverhampton Council plans to reduce the number of private hire driver licenses. An additional measure imposed by the Council is for proposed applicants to attend Wolverhampton Council in person.

A report for the Council’s latest meeting of its Audit and Risk Committee, found that as the number of licensees increases, so does the likelihood of a serious issue.

The Director of resident services, John Roseblade, states,

“There are pieces of work to try to throttle back the number of applications we are receiving. “One of which is that there used to be a requirement we would visit drivers, now we require drivers to attend Wolverhampton, which is designed to discourage people.”

It will be interesting to see if other Licensing Authorities adopt similar measures.