Bolton taxis: 'Status quo' ruling on MLS taxi trade debate

Bolton Council’s leadership announced last month that they were withdrawing their support Licencing Standards 2, which originally would have charged drivers for having vehicles that were more than 10 years old.

The scheme had provoked a wave of protests from drivers fearful of the impact on their livelihoods and a council cabinet meeting this week officially approved scrapping it.

Cabinet member for property services and regulation Cllr Sue Haworth said: “We are no longer supporting GM MLS 2, instead there is support for option two on the paper today to not support or approve GM MLS 2.”

She added: “The status quo will apply in the Bolton borough after this decision.”

Taxi drivers had feared for their livelihoods (Image: Newsquest)

The MLS scheme was first agreed on collectively by Greater Manchester’s 10 councils in 2018 and was designed to bring in a set of common standards for the 11,500 private hire vehicles across city region.

Under its previous administration, Bolton Council agreed to the first stage of the MLS proposals which were approved back in September 2021.

But taxi drivers repeatedly raised fears, at public protests and council meetings, that demands that vehicles be no more than five years old on first registration and have been on the road for less than 10 years to avoid a charge could have driven them off the road.

They also raised fears that a common livery policy could have made them a target for vandals.

In June, Bolton Council removed the age policy, agreed that there would be no Greater Manchester wide common livery and pushed back the new emissions policy from 2028 to 2030.

The scheme was repeatedly debated at Bolton Town Hall (Image: Newsquest)

The following month the Labour leadership went a step further and announced they would be scrapping the second part of the scheme entirely.

But opposition councillors this week also raised the issue of protecting the public.

Conservative deputy leader Cllr Hilary Fairclough said: “I’m a little bit disappointed if I’m honest, I know that we want to be fair to everybody, but I do feel that the emphasis that you’ve put on cost of vehicles, protecting the drivers from having the livery.

“There isn’t a mention in there about the actual members of the public that we are there to look after.”

She added: “It particularly states that our job is to look after the public who are using the taxis.

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“While I understand that all businesses are having a difficult time and we don’t want to unduly penalise them I do think that we have to revert back to what was our original job, which is to look after the general public.”

Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Roger Hayes also raised similar questions about public safety.

But council leader Cllr Nick Peel said that though they were going back to the status quo this “does not preclude the licencing authority from ever reviewing any other policy.”

Ultimately the council cabinet agreed to approve withdrawing support from phase two of the scheme.