ROSSENDALE Council has hit back at its Bradford counterpart in the escalating row about taxi licences.

The leader of of the east Lancashire authority rejected claims made by Councillor Val Slater, who accused Rossendale of licensing hundreds of drivers who were only interested in crossing the Pennines to work as private hire vehicles in Bradford.

Cllr Slater, who is deputy leader of the Bradford authority and its portfolio holder for transport, also claimed standards were lower in the Lancashire council's area than in Yorkshire.

Rossendale Council has been accused of approving too many hackney carriage licences. It has 1,864 drivers who have been issued with taxi licences and just two for private hire for a population of 65,000.

In contrast Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Hyndburn, Ribble Valley, Chorley and Pendle currently have jointly issued 336 taxi licences and 1,973 private hire permits for a combined population of 700,000.

Bradford has 222 black cab licences and 2,700 private hire vehicle permits for its 500,000 residents.

Rossendale Council leader Alyson Barnes and its taxi association boss David Lawrie accused Bradford and other Yorkshire and East Lancashire councils of operating an unlawful cap on black cab licences.

But Cllr Slater’s fears were echoed by Hyndburn council leader Miles Parkinson and Blackburn cab drivers’ leader Mohammed Younis.

Cllr Slater also claimed drivers turned down in Bradford were going to Rossendale.

She said she had not been able to convince Rossendale to tackle the problem despite repeated attempts.

“We have tried to talk to their leader about why they are setting these low standards,” she said.

“I would not get in a private hire that was licensed in Rossendale.”

Cllr Slater said Rossendale had lower standards for knowledge tests, English tests and criminal record checks and that cabs with its licenses are also immune from Bradford’s safety spot-checks.

Last month, an enforcement officer from Rossendale Council joined Bradford staff on a spot-checking exercise finding problems with all four of its licensed vehicles stopped.

Cllr Barnes said: “We are following the law regarding taxi licences.

“The government says there should be no arbitrary cap as operated by other councils and this needs sorting out.

“We reject allegations that our standards for driver or cab safety are lower but we are reviewing our policies.

“Two thirds of applications are refused.

“We may be issuing too many licences and are reviewing our procedures to include new maths and English tests.

“We are looking at introducing a test for drivers over whether they intend use their vehicles mainly in the borough.”

Mr Lawrie said: “The reason people come here is that other councils operate a cap on the number of hackney carriage licences, contrary to clear government policy.

“If they did not operate that cap, which in my view is not legal, drivers would not be coming to Rossendale for licences.

“Bradford and other councils need to look at their own licensing regime not blame Rossendale.”

A spokesman for Rossendale Council’s licensing department said the £783,000 a year revenue from taxi licensing was ring-fenced to cover the significant costs of the licensing service.

Hyndburn Council leader Miles Parkinson said: “We set high standards for taxis.

“Unfortunately when a vehicle is licensed elsewhere we are not able to carry out the same rigorous checks.

“How Rossendale Council acts is a matter for them, although I do know that this approach has been criticised by a number of authorities around us.”

Mr Younis said: “We have problem in the borough with Rossendale taxis operating as private hire vehicles here.

“The council there issues too many hackney carriage licences and they operate as minicabs all over the North-West and the country.”

Cllr Slater added: "We are proud of our licensing system. We set high standards and I do not apologise for that. I think that is what passengers in Bradford deserve."

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