A row has broken out over the safety in taxis in Weston-super-Mare between councillors in the town and the council in Wolverhampton — about 90 miles away.

The town’s representatives on North Somerset Council warned earlier this month that taxi drivers in Weston-super-Mare who had been stripped of their licence were instead getting licensed by the City of Wolverhampton Council and coming back to work in the town.

Chair of North Somerset Council’s licensing committee, Stuart Davies, told a council meeting: “Some of these people that are getting these licences shouldn’t be having them and that’s a real concern.”

Under the law, taxis can technically be licensed in any local authority — regardless of where the drivers live or plan to work. But quizzed about the issue by Kath Stanczyszyn on BBC Radio WM on Tuesday November 26, City of Wolverhampton Council leader Stephen Simkins hit back at the claims and said it was “wrong or naughty” to suggest the council had lower standards.

A spokesperson for City of Wolverhampton Council told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “There is no evidence to suggest any taxi drivers have had their license revoked by North Somerset Council before applying for a new one with Wolverhampton. We have spoken with North Somerset Council and confirmed a single case involving a driver who was licensed by both councils.

In that case, the driver was found guilty of driving without due care and attention in August 2023. After immediately informing City of Wolverhampton Council of the offence, he was called to a hearing before a licensing manager.

 “At the hearing he was ordered to complete a training programme and pass a further driving test to retain his license," the spokesperson said.

Major complaints about Wolverhampton licensing

At the North Somerset Council meeting on November 12 where the issue was discussed, Mike Solomon (Hutton and Locking, Liberal Democrat) said: “We’ve seen a lot of complaints recently that anybody who needs a taxi licence that can’t get one from our council because we are very stringent in our tests can apply to Wolverhampton and very easily get that licence. In fact, they put the answers to their questions on the internet.”

Catherine Gibbons (Weston-super-Mare Milton, Labour) added: “When I was in Liverpool recently at a conference, it was a major complaint amongst taxi drivers there that half their taxis are licensed in Wolverhampton as well.”

Although most councils issue a few hundred licences, City of Wolverhampton Council issued over 8,500 licences in the first five months of this year. But the West Midlands city said that it had little option but to issue the licences to drivers from other areas and insisted it had robust safety measures in place.

The spokesperson said: “While City of Wolverhampton Council has never actively encouraged applications from drivers outside the city, existing legislation requires that if an application is submitted and requirements are met, then the application must be granted. There is no lawful basis to refuse an application from someone who lives somewhere else in the country.”

The Wolverhampton council does not gain financially from the licensing scheme, the spokesperson added. 

“We expect drivers and vehicles licensed by us to always maintain the highest standards," the spokesperson said. "This is irrespective of the administrative boundary within which they are operating at any particular time."