HULL

Compulsory training on spotting signs of possible child exploitation is set to be introduced for Hull's taxi drivers.

The training will be a condition of future taxi licence applications.

Subject to cabinet approval in September, it will initially be free of charge with funding for the initiative being provided by Hull City Council.

Speaking at a council scrutiny meeting, Hull Safeguarding Children Board manager Neil Colthup said: "Making training part of the licensing conditions is the next step.

"Taxi drivers can act as eyes and ears for us and this will become part of our strategy to reduce risk."

There are around 1,400 taxi drivers in Hull and the training will form part of every new licence application and renewal.

Mr Colthup said a multi-agency group in Hull, including the council and Humberside Police, had recently expanded its focus on child sexual exploitation to include other areas of concern around criminal exploitation involving children and trafficking.

He said the group's work included meetings held every six weeks where suspected perpetrators were identified along with specific action aimed at disrupting their activities.

Councillors heard the police had recently completed a draft of its first-ever profile of the extent of child sexual exploitation in Hull.

Mr Colthup said this had been drawn up using police data and intelligence and would have extra information from other agencies added to it in due course.

"This will give us a better understanding of risks, trends and hot spots and help inform responses," he added.

Councillor Rosie Nicola said: "I remember when Rotherham hit the fan and I was horrified at the scale of the child sexual exploitation that had been going on there.

https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/hull-east-yorkshire-news/hull-taxi-drivers-set-trained-1790481 
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 Manchester-based retailer The Co-op is unlikely to extend a trial which saw taxis being used to deliver groceries to customers.

The three month experiment centred on three stores: Lancing in West Sussex, Ashley Down, in Bristol, and Royton in Manchester.

Currently, the Co-op provides home delivery from 228 branches, but only for purchases made in-store.

Home delivery is free within certain postcodes for customers spending more than £25, or for £3 if they spend less.

These items are delivered by Co-op vans.

But the recent trial involved taxis being hired to make deliveries to customers.

Industry commentators believe that this could be extended to deliver groceries using private hire cabs and courier fleets for items bought on the internet.

The group has recently employed senior e-commerce experts from other supermarket groups, including Chris Conway, previously senior director of grocery e-commerce with Asda and Morrisons’ head of online, and George Hayworth, former Asda e-commerce operations manager and Morrisons’ online digital operations manager.

Lisa Byfield-Green, senior analyst at LZ Retailytics, believes the trial could be linked to “future e-commerce ambitions” for the Co-op.

It could be aimed at cutting the costs of its existing delivery systems, and, with a “network of reliable logistics partners it could potentially also scale this initiative to include online ordering,” she said.

A staff member at Lancing was quoted as saying: “It’s a new process. We used to do it with our own vans but we’ve been trialing it with the taxis. It seems to be going quite well.”

However, a Co-op spokesman said there are no plans currently in place to extend the trial.

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WOLVERHAMPTON 


Taxi drivers staged a further 'go-slow' protest on the streets of Wolverhampton today in an ongoing row over licensing.

Cabbies gathered on roads around Wolverhampton Science Park from 9am ready to head out from 10am.

The group drove at around 20 mph on Stafford Road onto the city centre ring road

Sayed Hussain, aged 33, who is a Wolverhampton taxi driver, said: “I knew a driver who came the other side of Newcastle-under-Lyme to pick up his licence.

"How can the council monitor the amount of drivers they are handing licences out to? It is simply not safe, young lives could be at risk.

“If drivers are banned in one borough, they can still get licenses in Wolverhampton and that is wrong.

There is a reason why they are banned.”

It came less than a month after hundreds of drivers staged a similar demonstration.

Cabbies from Coventry joined union officials to campaign against Wolverhampton Council's private hire licensing system.

They say the authority has issued thousands of licences to Uber drivers operating all around the country, threatening the livelihoods of black cab drivers in places including Coventry.

Some Wolverhampton taxi drivers have been working in places as far afield as Weymouth.

The West Midlands Private Hire Drivers Association is behind the latest protest today.

Secretary of West Midlands Private Hire Drivers Association Richard Corfield said: “We have issues with driving licences that are handed out nationally from Wolverhampton. Plus self employed drivers are being exploited and we want more stringent tests. We want to see that drivers have done a topographical test along with tests in written and spoken English.

“Drivers are coming from all over the country, even as far as Weymouth, to get licences from here.

“We want to sit down with the council and have a meeting. They need to take into consideration that us drivers, who have been doing it for how many years, can have an input on the best way to issue licenses.

“The council are giving out 10 times more licences than boroughs of similar size and population. It cannot cope.

“Whether we get 20 or 200 drivers taking part, success today would be if we raise awareness to the public.”

Wolverhampton Council dismissed earlier protests as 'pointless' saying any demonstrations should be directed to law makers in Westminster.

Council officials claimed only 20 vehicles took part.

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