Taxi badge costs cut after some Blackpool cabbies turned to rival town for licences

And the move – in response to calls from the resort taxi trade – has also helped ease a shortage of drivers.

Blackpool Council has cut the cost of its taxi licences and scrapped a £300 vocational qualification in order to encourage more people into working as cabbies.

However drivers must still comply with medical and safeguarding requirements including DBS (criminal conviction) checks as well as pass a knowledge test (which has been modified to better meet the needs of the trade).

The changes were introduced by the council after it emerged cab firms were struggling to recruit new drivers following the Covid pandemic.

Meanwhile a change in the law in 2015 meant private hire drivers, who must be pre-booked, could operate in a different area from where they obtained a licence.

This had led to drivers from across the country, including Blackpool, seeking licences from Wolverhampton Council which were cheaper and quicker to obtain, but also meant they were not regulated locally.

The change only affected private hire drivers, not hackney cabs which can be flagged down on the street and have remained in the control of the local authority they work in.

Dee Grant, a director of C Cabs on Caunce Street in Blackpool, said the changes made by the council had encouraged more new drivers while maintaining standards.

She said: “Since the council has changed the testing procedures and reduced the cost of licences, we have had a lot more applications coming through from people wanting to be drivers.

“Previously it was more difficult and expensive. The medical and safeguarding tests are still in place and Blackpool is still more stringent than Wolverhampton so the public still have the assurance they need.”

Blackpool Council has reduced the cost of a one year licence to £75 from £90; a three year licence has reduced to £195 from £250, and renewal of a three year licence has reduced to £175 from £225.

A council spokesperson said the changes were introduced “due to the effect on the trade following the pandemic, and as a result of feedback from the trade itself” .

The council said it had dropped the related vocational qualification (RVQ) drivers were previously required to do as “the trade told us this qualification was not beneficial and was a barrier to entering the trade because it cost £300.”

All other training requirements have been retained in relation to local knowledge, taxi law and policy, and the highway code.

However multiple choice questions have been introduced and other elements of training are being updated.

John Cutler, managing director of Premier Taxis based on Lytham Road, which had previously licensed some of its drivers through Wolverhampton, also welcomed the changes.

He said: “It’s a step in the right direction and we are putting our Blackpool drivers through the Blackpool Council licensing system now.”

When the issue emerged in April 2021, Mr Cutler said using Wolverhampton was in response to the need to get drivers working as quickly as possible.

Anyone interested in applying to become a taxi driver can go to www.learn2cab.co.uk to find out more.