A HOST of measures aimed at improving passenger safety in taxis and private-hire vehicles across the district have been rubber-stamped by councillors.

Reductions in advertising costs and vehicle fees were also approved, as was a tougher English-language test for drivers.

Members of Bradford Council’s regulatory and appeals committee voted in favour of the changes during a meeting at City Hall where some cabbies voiced their concerns over the safety checks required if a vehicle is involved in an accident.

Geoff Binnington, the council’s principal officer for fleet and transport services, said there had been a significant increase in the number of drivers failing to inform the authority if their vehicle had been damaged in an accident and subsequently written off.

For such a vehicle to be deemed roadworthy again, it would – under council policy – have to undergo an Autoline inspection, the closest provider of which is in Leicester.

Under the new guidelines, operators will be responsible for the safety and insurance of vehicles and drivers, even if their licences are provided by councils outside the Bradford district.

It was said that more than 100 vehicles with outside licences were currently operating within the district – many coming from Rossendale, Lancashire – and operators will now need to ensure that drivers have written evidence they have told their insurance companies they are working in Bradford.

Cllr Imran Hussain, deputy leader of Bradford Council, said: “The use of out-of-district vehicles is a situation I am extremely uncomfortable with but it is legal. The drivers of vehicles from Rossendale, or elsewhere, need to organise the necessary checks – it has to be their responsibility, not the operators.”

As part of the new English-language test, rather than reading a paragraph from a book, cabbies will be expected – before a licence is approved – to chat about things like the weather and where they took their last customer.

Keighley Private Hire Association chairman, Stuart Hastings, has called for a much wider tightening of the rules, such as a higher minimum age for drivers and a lower maximum age for cars.

He said: "We are licensed by the council to be public service vehicles, like buses or trains. They should actually look at us more because there are a lot of times where we are one-to-one with a customer.”