TWO in five taxis and minicabs are still failing crucial safety checks, Bradford Council has warned as it prepares to tighten its rules.

And a ‘wall of shame’ at the district’s taxi and private hire testing facility shines a light on some of the horrors their staff have discovered over the years.

A broken seatbelt clumsily sewn back together, vital car parts missing entirely, tyres worn through to the canvas and a seatbelt glued through a roof panel in a failed bid to fool inspectors are just some of the howlers on display.

A new report, by hackney carriage and private hire licensing manager Carol Stos, says: “For several years, the licensing service has worked with the trades through education and support to improve vehicle safety inspection results.

“This has not worked and circa 40 per cent of licensed vehicles are still failing vehicle safety inspections, of which circa 20 per cent are for serious or multiple point failures.”

She says cab firms have expressed their frustration that if they try to enforce the required standards, “those drivers who do not wish to comply simply move to operators who do not require appropriate safety standards”.

The authority is now planning to beef up its safety checks, by requiring vehicle safety records for each car.

Under the changes, drivers taking their cars in for their regular mandatory checks at Bradford Council’s taxi testing office in Shearbridge would also be hit with larger penalties if they fail.

Cabbies would be suspended, as well as being charged the existing £100 fee, if their vehicles are found to have two or more dangerous defects.

The fee for one serious defect would increase from £20 to £100 and the fee for five or more minor defects would rise from £20 to £75.

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, who oversees licensing at Bradford Council, said the 40 per cent failure rate was “40 per cent too much”.

She said: “This is all about ensuring safety and increasing standards, and making sure that regular maintenance is done so that everyone is safe.”

Cabbies would also be forced to display a window sticker telling people what to do if they have concerns about child sexual exploitation.

The report says that displaying stickers had been optional until now, but “whilst a number of operators supported the initiative, take up was very low”.

And operators would also be forced to conduct background checks before hiring office staff, with the report saying if information like people’s home addresses or holiday dates “were to fall into the wrong hands, this would pose a potential risk”.

A final decision on the changes will be made by Bradford Council’s Regulatory and Appeals Committee when it meets on Thursday.

Cabbies and firms have given a mixed reaction to the proposals.

Yasser Iqbal, owner of Girlington All Over, Bradford’s biggest private hire firm, said they already carried out reference checks on staff and detailed safety inspections of cars.

He said they would support stricter district-wide safety rules, saying: “It’s good for the driver and it’s good for the safety of people travelling. At the end of the day, it could be my family in that car.”

And Khurram Shehzad, owner of Local Cars in Wibsey, said he was “really pleased” with some of the measures being proposed.

He agreed with the report’s claim that stricter operators could lose drivers to less scrupulous firms, saying he had suffered this himself.

He said: “I have lost drivers because of certain precautions we have. I’m quite strict with my drivers.”

He said for example, if a car hadn’t been for its weekly safety inspection at their base, they barred the driver from work that week.

But Shabir Munir, of the Hackney Carriage Owners’ and Drivers’ Association, said drivers could be penalised for vehicle defects which weren’t their fault.

He said for example, they could have had repairs done at a garage which turn out to be faulty when tested at Shearbridge, meaning the driver could face suspension.

“If the garage makes a mistake, why should the driver be punished for that?” he said.