Taxi Forum Update

On 06/07/2025 I published an article : Bristol Taxi Crisis

I reported that the Bristol Taxi Forum had not met since January 2024. This was based on the fact that Bristol City Council had not published the minutes from the Taxi Forum since January 2024.

A few day ago (19/08/2025) BCC published the minutes of Taxi Forum meetings for:

• Apr 2024
• Feb 2025
• Apr 2025
• Jun 2025
• Jul 2025

This table shows the dates that the Minutes were uploaded to the BCC website, and the number of times they have been downloaded (as at 23/08/2025).

BCC published the minutes as a result of Mike Bullock (Bristol Executive Cars) raising the issue at the 18th June June Taxi Forum:

MB raised concerned minutes were sent out late. JM confirmed minutes would be sent out sooner following future Forum meetings.

But it did take BCC 2 months to publish the minutes that were missing from their website.

It is good to see that BCC have now updated their Taxi Forum information, and I hope they continue to publish details of the Taxi Forum going forward.

Here are some items of interest from the recently published minutes:

Love Saves The Day

JM commended the trade for the approach to this year’s Love Saves the Day event. The previous year a number of HCDs had refused fares. This year test purchases carried out; no fares were refused. There were a couple of incidents where drivers did try to pick and choose fares, however these were isolated and overall, the trade performed very well.

PC Patrick Quinton (aka the"Taxi Cop") Updates

Following the Baroness Casey report need to get a better understanding of how PHVs were used to enable child sexual exploitation to take place. Committed to ensure it doesn’t happen in Bristol so will be looking into this in more detail. Will be producing a report to identify issues that the police and council can take moving forward.

Council Comment: Casey report did contain recommendation that the Government should take immediate steps to stop out of town vehicles. How this takes shape remains to be seen. Suggestion of moving licensing function to local transport authorities, in our case the West of England Combined Authority, however this would not stop out of town drivers working in Bristol. Only significant legislative change will prevent this from happening.

PQ has also received positive feedback from the trade and has seen positive outcomes as a result of the training such as at-risk passengers being diverted away from the suspension bridge and interventions in respect of children. BCC safeguarding training is very good compared to other councils offer.

PQ stops on average 40-50 vehicles per month which generates a lot of work, he has also been working on a lot of intelligence-based work. PQ had recently been on an operation with the DVSA, and had concerns that drivers aren’t checking their tyres correctly. PQ dealt with 26 reports from partners in July, these came from Police colleagues, community speed watch and the central ticket office. Each month Patrick discloses information to the council about 5-6 areas of concern. Trade representatives raised concerns around Hackney Carriage Drivers refusing people who were paying by card. PQ advised he was happy to assist with test purchasing.

East Bristol Liveable Neighbourhood

This is a trial covering Barton Hill, parts of Redhill and St George to better balance how streets are used for people and vehicles. It will include physical measures such as plants/bollards in the roads, bus gates. Taxi and Private Hires will have exemptions for these automatically, but the physical barriers will change the flow of the traffic.

Trade representatives asked how this would affect Home to School transport. TY advised that the roads would still be accessible, but the routes taken would change.

The Knowledge Test

A report taken to the PSP committee two weeks ago. The Licensing Team has worked with trade representatives and elected members to find a good compromise to modernise the test. The press coverage was highly misleading, the test is not being removed, and instead topographical knowledge is being removed.

The topographical sections would be removed with topics covering issues such as disability awareness issues and planning routes using navigation devices. Confirmed that the DfT Best Practice Guidance stated that private hire drivers should not have to undergo a topographical knowledge test. SC confirmed the existing test will remain in force until a new test is approved. IA queried if routes were included in the current test, CK confirmed these were removed a number of years previously.

Revoked Drivers

One of the trade representatives asked if there could be a consultation on keeping members of the trade with penalty points on the road. JM advised that the policy on driving endorsements is in line with National Standards, and that he could not see any justification for departing from this. DD advised that applicants would only be referred to PSP if they had serious endorsements or were repeat offenders.

There were significant court delays which could take months, if not years. A driver had his licence revoked last year and continued to drive, was due to go to court on Monday, and it was adjourned again. If you know of driver’s who have been revoked, and are still working, this is likely why.