wolverhampton council taxi complaints

NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email. Best and worst companies at resolving issues. ( It is only after these checks have been satisfied that an applicant can become a licensed driver. Resolver is a totally free service that you can use to complain effectively. (Q@QH( Every council in England would be told to carry out checks on all applicants. Slower processing times and higher fees elsewhere had encouraged many drivers to choose Wolverhampton. ( services through our wholly owned subsidiary This request has been closed to new correspondence. ( ( 2019. If you need to make a complaint about a driver or a vehicle, please visit thecomplaints page. Across the weekend (Friday 18 December and Saturday 19 December), 27 taxi drivers were issued with enforcement action, including defect notices or suspension of licenses. If you are not the intended recipient, an addressing or transmission error I understand they may feel like they're being unfairly targeted but you know this is about protecting children and protecting drivers' business reputation.". On April 29, 2020, council officers received a. VideoThe secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure, LGBT troops take love for Eurovision to front line, Why an Indian comedian is challenging fake news rules. It is intended solely for the addressee. L thompson made this Freedom of Information request to Wolverhampton City Council . ?$;@>~T&qM+lT?zgi-]rlR%I*ndshgU / A driver working in Southampton when a serious sexual allegation was made against him in October 2017, A Wolverhampton taxi driver accused of being involved in child sexual exploitation on 16 June 2017 in Bolsover, Derbyshire, A serious sexual allegation recorded as taking place in Mansfield, more than 70 miles away, on 3 October 2016, One allegation of CSE made in Shropshire in January 2018 along with two other serious sexual allegations in 2017, In Telford, where authorities have dealt with. Resolver can help you send your complaints to Wolverhampton City Council. ( endobj Wolverhampton Council hands out 15,000 taxi licences in one year to drivers across UK By Peter Madeley Wolverhampton Transport Published: Jan 10, 2020 Comments Wolverhampton Council. Read about our approach to external linking. ( hh hh hhQ@%- QK@ EPEPPQE QEQE QE QE0 If you need to book a wheelchair accessible vehicle this is a list of thecurrent licensed providers. ( The authoritys total income from private hire and Hackney Carriage licensing was 157,482. The data was provided in a Freedom of Information request. Subscribe to one or all notification sources from this one place. send you a fee notice and we will require you to pay the fee before If not, we will refer your complaint to the manager responsible for the service you're unhappy with. ( Established in 2008. Would you be willing to provide a witness statement? ago J((h Please provide as much information as possible to help our Licensing Compliance team investigate your complaint. The application fee for a New Private Hire Driver licence is 64.00 for a 1 year licence or 120.00 for a 3 year licence and must be paid electronically as part of this application process. 30 March 2022. %PDF-1.7 A total of 927 drivers were said to be waiting for a hearing to determine their application. Wolverhampton Council currently operates a Get Home Safe campaign which seeks to make sure the public are aware of the differences between hiring hackney carriages and private hire vehicles. (Q@(((ER ( (( );R QG4s@4Q4 3G4PRSi PE%EPG4Q Established in 2008. The council report also stated its licensing team prioritised drivers in its own area and had taken on 20 extra staff in the last year to deal with the volume of applications, with plans to appoint more. Your donations keep this site and others like it running. A Ministry of Transport (MOT) certificate dated no more than 10 days prior to the application date must also be provided. Wolverhampton has registered about a third of England's taxi drivers and is inundated with applications, according to a report. ( Wolverhampton ( Taxi complaints. This training is only available in English and covers the following: This syllabus is regularly reviewed, including with the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) and Partnership Strategic Exploitation Co-ordinator. 7 0 obj Police were informed in all cases, it said. When we receive a complaint, if the problem is something we can put right straight away, we will. Reports of child sexual exploitation are among allegations made. The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure. has misdirected this e-mail; you must not use, disclose, copy, print or Wolverhampton Council launched The Additional Restriction Grant - Taxi and Private Hire Grant Scheme to help drivers across the city. ( NOTE: Please do not edit the subject line when replying to this email. 2000andwe aim to senda response by4 December 2019. Customer Engagement Officer The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. It showed that in 2019 a total of 11,461 applications to Wolverhampton Council came from drivers based in Birmingham, while there were 2,457 from Manchester, 1,926 from Coventry, 1,279 from Leicester, 1,102 from Nottingham and 432 from Telford. ( endobj Weve helped millions of people find a resolution. It is a criminal offence for people on barred lists to apply to work in a regulated activity and offenders are reported to the police. Any views expressed in this email are those of the individual sender, ( Less teenagers have meningitis protection since before pandemic, Coronation uproar as Birmingham residents react to allegiance pledge with everyone saying same thing, A new independent pizza restaurant is coming to Harborne & its giving away free pizzas, More than 20,000 Russians dead in Bakhmut, US says, France May Day protests leave dozens of police injured, 'Fighter jets are roaring over my home in Sudan'. Download Council cannot accept responsibility for any loss or damage arising from We also undertake Compliance Operations throughout the year, including Friday and Saturday nights to ensure safety for visitors to the night-time economy. View our cookie policy here. 2 0 obj ( Public safety is paramount and we are constantly working to improve our processes to protect people. Six of the drivers in the CSE reports had their licences taken from them but the seventh complaint was not upheld. the case and advise you of your rights to request an internal review and You can be certain that youre talking to the right person at the right time. Learn more about Resolver Pro and how to claim your business. We use the DBS Update Service to check drivers DBS certificates every day of the week. the author immediately by replying to this email. Thank you for your request for information that was received on6 November The delegation was agreed by the district authority's cabinet on. except where the sender specifically states these to be the views Where there are motoring convictions, these are also considered against the Councils guidelines. Importantly, our driver conditions dictate that drivers must cooperate with reasonable requests from compliance staff authorised in other areas. to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office. The vehicle is then checked in person by our trained vehicle inspectors. L thompson made this Freedom of Information request to Wolverhampton City Council This condition empowers officers in other areas and where drivers are breaking the law then other licensing authorities can and do prosecute them. In some case, a fee may be payable. However, the authoritys dominance of the market has not gone down well with other councils, some of which have seen their own private hire applications plummet. stream except where the sender specifically states these to be the views This may only be completed by a General Medical Council (GMC) registered practitioner. It just seems like the budget line comes first above everything.. Keep all your correspondence in one place, Go straight to the correct contact point within an organisation, Make use of a series of simple templates to help make raising your complaint as simple and quick as possible, Receive reminders when you get a response from a company or organisation, Get an automatic notification when it's appropriate to escalate your case to the next management level within a company, Package up and send off the whole history of your complaint to an ombudsman or other regulatory body if necessary. Email:licensing@sstaffs.gov.ukTelephone: (01902) 696000, Sign up to receive news and updates from South Staffordshire Council. Less teenagers have meningitis protection since before pandemic, Coronation uproar as Birmingham residents react to allegiance pledge with everyone saying same thing, A new independent pizza restaurant is coming to Harborne & its giving away free pizzas, More than 20,000 Russians dead in Bakhmut, US says, Rita Ora and Karlie Kloss arrive at the Met Gala, France May Day protests leave dozens of police injured. CCTV may also be fitted to cars, with an encrypted system so footage could only be accessed if a crime was reported. `!DR It will see eligible drivers receive a one-off payment of. Please notify (IKFh I@Q@ E- QE QE QE QE QE QE QE QE QE QE QE RR ( ( ) sG4sH999999( ()i)h( (QE If we decide a fee is payable, we will The Council is 100% compliant with this KPI. Reports of child sexual exploitation are among allegations made against drivers licensed in Wolverhampton, but who also operate across England. disseminate the information contained within this e-mail. ( ( all of the information you have requested. <> It currently has 4,461 drivers licensed. 13 Birmingham pubs named after royalty - but are they celebrating the Kings Coronation Weekend? Donate and support our work. This email has been scanned for all viruses and all reasonable precautions In the last financial year, the city registered an extra 7,428 drivers, taking the total with a Wolverhampton licence to 26,745. ( privacy legislation. Navdeep Nijjar Many established taxi drivers say the Deregulation Act 2015 is threatening their livelihoods and claim a change in the application process is "risking customer safety". J)h )(h (%-PHii(cRHR})sG4sE J`(4QH((EPEPEPEPEPEPEPEPEP2Q[)R The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure. 5 0 obj The Local Democracy Reporting Service said that since the change in the law, Wolverhampton had invested heavily in its digital licensing service, reducing processing time and cost. We use a state-of-the-art system which uses the same technology as can be found at Border Controls ePassport Gates in UK airports. Donate and support our work. PQ[PKE))h4 QEIK@QZJ )h@ E-% - RPQE -PEPEPEPEPEPHih( (( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( ((JZ@QE QE H9@ %/4sI@ E- QE% QK@ EP0(QE(QE QE %-S ) QE RQFhi)i( (E4hz ?hh 94P JZ(4 i(9(E -'4G4:9CG4 RJ) JB1E RP~( IE(ABQE Number of Private hire taxi operators who have breached their operators licence conditions including name of operator and details of breaches from 2017 -2019, Information request Most populous nation: Should India rejoice or panic? ( "In terms of my experience working on the front line and from working in some cases, there are some drivers that are predatory. Resolver is free. (ZNh ( (((((((((( (EPEPI-Nh9G4sG4 sG4sG4 S{4 Magistrates dismissed Sahrish Rahat Ayub's appeal against Wolverhampton Council's decision to revoke her private hire driver licence. ( Subscribe to our newsletter to get the day's top stories sent directly to you. In response to your request, please see attached our response to your Once a driver is granted, we continue to monitor them. Wolverhampton City Council Taxi Licensing. Complaints . Help us protect your right to hold public authorities to account. the use of this email or attachments. "The first thing to say is that the majority of taxi drivers out there are working hard to make a living and are trained to actually help vulnerable people," said Phil Ashford, from the National Working Group (NWG) for tackling child sexual exploitation. The city council added it had been at the forefront of calls for a national database of drivers. Are you the owner of any commercial copyright on this page? )(((h(QE The report made furthest from the West Midlands city came from a complainant more than 150 miles away. Our reference: 1386425, Response all information to be supplied.pdf, 96K Taxi drivers and council colleagues say farewell to Elaine Moreton (centre) who is retiring at the age of 75 after 39 years' service. the author immediately by replying to this email. In one instance, a council officer drove more than 100 miles to a suspect driver's home and "took his licence away from him on his doorstep". ( (@QE (JaIKE9R@J_sMjJ ZJU%0 Where new information is found, their licence is reviewed. The Council's main objective regarding taxi and private hire licensing are: If you are looking for further information about the requirements, please follow the link toWolverhampton City Council Taxi Licensing. Just raise a case and leave feedback after. The court heard that Ayub frequently carried the passenger without their journeys being pre-booked through a licensed private hire vehicle operator which is illegal and contrary to Section 45 of the Town Police Clauses Act 1847. By providing you with all the tools and contact details needed to raise and manage your complaint, we put you firmly in control of your issue. Wolverhampton Council, 9 0 obj The authority said it dealt with complaints robustly, with all safeguarding issues dealt with within a day "regardless of where the driver is in the country". Dear Wolverhampton City Council, Please could you provide a list by (name / address / contact details /) . Yours faithfully u&?JC All rights reserved. complaints against drivers, are less likely to occur in an environment . We couldnt load the mail server logs for this message. and a limited company (03277032). has misdirected this e-mail; you must not use, disclose, copy, print or ( Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, and sign up for local news updates direct to your phone. is a registered charity in England and Wales (1076346) We are an entirely independent issue-resolution tool that enables the raising and handling of consumer issues, making complaining simpler for everyone. <> Please note, if you are not willing to provide a witness statement we may be unable to process your complaint fully. Ebrahim Suleman, former chairman of West Midlands Private Hire Drivers Association, said "99.9% of drivers" were honest and hard working but a minority used loopholes to get a licence. C " Drivers must undergo medical certification to Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) Group 2 Standards. have been taken to ensure that no viruses are present. Political Editor for the Express & Star. Is climate change killing Australian wine? JFIF ` ` C <>/XObject<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/MediaBox[ 0 0 594.96 842.04] /Contents 4 0 R/StructParents 0>> On April 29, 2020, council officers received a complaint that Ayub, aged 25, had picked up a passenger who had not pre-booked, which is a requirement of both her private hire licence and car insurance policy. They will investigate your complaint and respond to you direct. However, there remains no official system of ensuring all authorities are aware of suspected criminal activity, although the council "refutes any accusation" of failing to pass on details. )((((QE( ( ( ( ( ( ))h9G4:9 4wE/4 sIJ ( "What is really important is that we make sure we bring the taxi drivers in on this. With Resolver you can send your case to key ombudsmen and regulators including: Resolver is not affiliated to, linked with or otherwise endorsed by Wolverhampton City Council. The customer had been provided with a business card containing Ayubs personal phone number and she told him she had set up her own business. In Wolverhampton itself, there were four allegations of CSE and four serious sexual allegations. 4 0 obj The guidelines have been benchmarked against the Institute of Licensings Guidance and the Governments Statutory Standards and in both documents cases, the Councils rehabilitation periods are longer. 2. Magistrates dismissed Sahrish Rahat Ayubs appeal against Wolverhampton Councils decision to revoke her private hire driver licence. If the applicant is renewing their licence or has held the same licence within the last 12 months, they must provide an HMRC Tax Check code to show that they registered to pay tax. <> A Freedom of Information request found Wolverhampton Council had handed out 15,000 private hire licences in 2019, bringing in nearly 3.7m in fees. Contact us if you think it should be reopened. Yours faithfully, ^PER`QE This email contains proprietary confidential information some or all of Did this woman die because her genitals were cut? Meanwhile Walsall Council received just 48 new applications for licences last year, when it had a total of 1,129 private hire drivers registered. Taxi and Private Hire licensing within South Staffordshire is administrated on behalf of the Council by the City of Wolverhampton Council's Licensing team from April 2022. . 2019aboutTaxi complaints please follow the link to Wolverhampton City Council Taxi Licensing. Visible links This website uses cookies to enable essential site functionality, as well as marketing, personalised ads, and analytics. 6 0 obj ( Responsible for local and national political stories, opinion, comment and analysis. Drivers must have held a UK driving licence for at least one year and this licence is checked as part of the application process. (%-% ii(BsKIh9O/4 GS jJV ( ^j@J(QH((((((( disseminate the information contained within this e-mail. (05798215). Applicants are also required to disclose any previous licensing history. Public safety is paramount and we are constantly working to improve our processes to protect people. Where there is information on the applicants DBS certificate, this is considered in accordance with the Councils Guidelines. However, if you'd rather complain directly, you can use the above address to contact Wolverhampton City Council. list by name and contact details of private hire vehicle operators licensed to/by Wolverhampton council 2020 The Councils Guidelines are regularly reviewed and as of November 2022 are currently under review pending the anticipated publication of Government Best Practice Guidance. Subscribe to our newsletter to get the day's top stories sent directly to you. Then like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. endobj i90#?WHB CH 7:+ 6YgY]BPU8q-HG-b%+aK`y=DUFB%2)x$T'oSz+! You are now required to show photoID when voting at a polling station at the elections on May 4th. Wolverhampton 13 Birmingham pubs named after royalty - but are they celebrating the Kings Coronation Weekend? Its quick, easy and totally free. request. It prompted licensing bosses at Wolverhampton Council to streamline its application process and slash the prices of licences leading to a dramatic increase in applications. Some drivers may have taken on related work as delivery drivers, the report added. The customer was charged 15 for a trip to Russells Hall Hospital from her home in Dudley, which is typically priced at 7. Councillor Mike Bird, the leader of Walsall Council, said he favoured a change in legislation as the current system was making a mockery of local authority licensing laws. Subscribe to one or all notification sources from this one place. City of Wolverhampton Council takes taxi licensing seriously. 2023 BBC. ( "I was sitting in the back of the taxi and he put his hand on my knee". Wolverhampton licensing bosses have insisted they informed relevant authorities when serious reports of crimes were made, but several councils have told the BBC they were unaware of the allegations. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. endstream Your donations keep this site and others like it running. Most populous nation: Should India rejoice or panic? It should be noted that there is no provision in legislation to refuse to consider an application from an individual who lives outside of Wolverhampton. Help us protect your right to hold public authorities to account. Wolverhampton Council, It has granted 35,035 private hire licences since 2017, pumping 8.7m into the authoritys coffers. ^hibQE( ZJ(EPEPER ( ( ( ( ( ( (QE( E6) E:hwAKKAIKI@Q@IE QE R(4 J )hi( (i( In Birmingham, where there have been four serious sexual allegations against drivers licensed in Wolverhampton, the council said it was concerned the Deregulation Act had "resulted in a situation where there are many vehicles and drivers in the city over whom the council has no enforcement powers". requested for any other reason together with the reason(s) why and details Wolverhampton Council handed out a record 15,000 private hire licences last year raking in nearly 3.7 million in fees. xUMo0#HMH,mQ-Uki66>X{o<3n|uYK6+m Read about our approach to external linking. The campaign also highlights the risks involved in taking an unlicensed vehicle and how to identify a legitimate taxi or private hire driver. Resolver is not affiliated to, linked with or otherwise endorsed by Wolverhampton City Council. privacy legislation. A site to help anyone submit a Freedom of Information request. The secret mine that hid the Nazis' stolen treasure. But only a small fraction of the new licence holders are operating in the city, with some drivers working hundreds of miles away in Scotland. It is examining a range of proposals, including making taxi and private hire. City of Wolverhampton Council takes taxi licensing seriously. The service also undergoes audit each year. The driver can only undertake work in a vehicle licensed by City of Wolverhampton Council. Over the same period Wolverhampton Council had 1,018 applications from private hire drivers based in Walsall. Z( sEPEaZ5 )VJZHiZ)Qj4 va@b Download Follow BBC West Midlands on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Are you the owner of any commercial copyright on this page? <> Get started now and lets get this sorted. <> stream Placing members of the public at unnecessary risk by taking a booking without valid insurance is unacceptable.. u6`QK@E%E%/z( (Q@RPKE QIKHOQL(QKI@J^h (/65hQJ1AE% RR)(JZ(AIE R ZC@RPKE% QK@ E- QE QE QK@ EPEPEPIKE %Q@ EPzQE QE QE QE QE QE QE QE QE QI@E% QKE Lib Dem campaigner Ian Jenkins, said: The council has turned a vital safety check into a cash cow. Please check with your phone provider if you are unsure about how much a call will cost. ( The standard of behaviour and level of trust expected should be demonstrated in the conduct of those licensed at all times. We couldnt load the mail server logs for this message. DBS checks are also carried out on vehicle licence applicants, as well as a check that the vehicle is insured for public and/or private hire.

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