The scandal of the taxi drivers circumventing anti-grooming gangs safety rules
For every few Manchester-plated taxis here, one licensed in Wolverhampton crawls past. Why are so many local drivers obtaining their licences from a council 75 miles away?
'Because it's cheap, it's easier,' says Wolverhampton-licensed taxi driver Yasar Ditta over the honking of horns and the drumbeat of Manchester rain on his roof.
Wolverhampton has a reputation among drivers for being an easier place to obtain a licence, he explains.
Others taking fares from the swarm of arrivals at the station agree. 'It takes a long time here [in Manchester],' says another taxi driver with a Wolverhampton plate.
'In Manchester you have to do [an additional] driving test, all these things,' says a third. 'I didn't need to do that [to get my licence from Wolverhampton Council]. There aren't as many obstacles. Manchester chooses to make it hard for people.'
'Out-of-area' licensing, as it's known, is not a new phenomenon, nor is it limited to Manchester taxi drivers. For years, City of Wolverhampton Council has been receiving thousands of taxi licence applications from drivers outside the city.
Now, though, there are fears that Wolverhampton's licensing regime is, in some cases, becoming a magnet for drivers seeking to circumvent more stringent rules imposed by their own local authorities – in areas such as Rotherham, following the grooming gangs scandal.
In the year ending March 2024, just 813 Wolverhampton licences were issued to local drivers, while a striking 20,375 went to drivers based elsewhere. The year before, the figures were similar: 778 licences for Wolverhampton residents, compared with 19,592 for those outside the city. According to government data, Wolverhampton now has almost 110 licensed taxis and private-hire vehicles per 1,000 people – far higher than London's 12 per 1,000, Rotherham's four, or the under 10 seen in many other areas.
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