Licences suspended in taxis crackdown

Police are now urging residents to help them catch unlicensed taxi drivers following the recent operation.

Officers and staff from Bradford Council's hackney carriage enforcement team completed licensing checks on more than 38 vehicles in the Eccleshill area over two days.

Aside from those licences which were suspended, police also gave seven drivers advisory notices for more minor matters which need to be rectified for them to comply with regulations.

Insp Pete Tuff, of Eccleshill Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT), said: "While the majority of the taxi drivers who operate in our area are honest and perfectly law abiding, we are aware of residents' concerns about a minority of licensed vehicles and continue to work with them and our lawful drivers to make sure the few who do try and operate dangerously or without licences are stopped.

"We are pleased to note that the vast majority of drivers we spoke to on the night were fully licensed which should be reassuring for residents using their services."

The operation follows a series of checks carried out to monitor taxi drivers in Eccleshill and North Bradford over the last 12 months, following complaints from residents about issues such as the use of loud horns at night.

Police have stressed that while the majority of taxi operators in Eccleshill are perfectly law abiding they want to reassure residents they are keeping an eye on the issue to discourage any rogue drivers from operating frequently in the area.

The authorities also continue to monitor drivers in the area following reports of wanted criminals using cabs in Eccleshill last year to unknowingly pick them up after they had committed offences.

Anyone with information about rogue taxi drivers in the area is urged to contact Eccleshill NPT on 01274 376168.