Taxi drivers turned out in large numbers at Bolton Town Hall this week to once again make their opposition to the proposed changes to licensing standards.

The Minimum Licensing Standards reforms in question will come into effect across Greater Manchester by the end of the decade.

Changes from what was first proposed, which included charging vehicles over ten years old on a daily rate to be on the road, have been made but the opposition from taxi drivers is still strong.

Bolton Council’s cabinet met to discuss the latest proposals which were sent back for the scrutiny committee to decide.

The first stage of the MLS proposals were approved in September 2021 and now the second stage is been debated.

The cabinet proposed three changes including getting rid of a maximum age, getting rid of a common livery policy and pushing back the new emissions policy from 2028 to 2030.

But speaking outside the town hall Mohammed Akhtar, from the vice chair of the Bolton Private Hire Association, reiterated his opposition to the plans.

He said: “We object to the MLS, they have not negotiated with us properly, we have protested for the last two years that we don’t want this MLS, MLS affects every driver here.

“Neither Conservative nor Labour administration are listening to what the drivers want.

“We don’t want it, as simple as that.

“MLS needs to be scrapped.

“It is not necessary to put it on the drivers.”

At the cabinet meeting councillor Sue Haworth outlined what the council was proposing.

She said: “I recognise there are trade representatives calling for the scrapping of MLS.

“There are also licence holders who have not been calling for scrapping.

“We are being, as a cabinet, up front and straight about this.

“A notable number of hackney carriage and private hire vehicles will become nonpliant of emission standards.

“We have set an emission transition period of seven years to 2030.

“I have considered the seven year transition period that will occur alongside the continued effect of the government’s deregulation of the taxi trade in England and what we find in the Bolton borough.

“Our licencing authority is unable to have much effect at all on out of town licenced taxis from Yorkshire and the Midlands as an example.

“In the transition years we will be navigating help and support for drivers of hackney carriage and drivers of private hire that are emission compliant.

“I am not persuaded that our MLS two choices will precipitate any graveyard of older vehicles in Bolton.”

Speaking after the meeting, councillor leader Nick Peel said they were committed to ongoing dialogue with representatives from the taxi trade.

He said: "We are not going to change our view on the age limit, there will not be an age limit on vehicles.

"There is no time limit to have ongoing dialoge with drivers' represesntative.

"There are a number of issues outside of MLS that we would like to discuss."