DECLINING cab safety standards are an accident waiting to happen, five of Bradford’s biggest private hire firms have warned.

In an extraordinary letter to four local MPs, the firms say they have “serious concerns for passenger safety” and lay the blame firmly at Bradford Council’s door.

Earlier this week, Bradford Council revealed that two in five cabs were still failing their crucial safety checks, while a spot-check operation which inspected 12 taxis and private hire vehicles last week saw seven of them taken off the road because of defects.

Now the new joint letter, from firms Girlington All Over, Euro Cars, Power Cars, Leap and Shipley Central, says the Council needs to get enforcement teams out doing spot-checks more often.

It says these teams could also start helping drivers who fall victim to vandalism or attacks, to help build a relationship of mutual trust between drivers and Council staff.

It says: “Given the recent ‘bad publicity’ in the press about 12 taxis being randomly stopped, and seven being taken off the road, we as operators have had enough.

“We prove a service to the public. Customer safety is our main priority. We attribute the increase in vehicles failing random tests with the lack of enforcement by officers and poor management of the department.

“The way in which Bradford Council hackney carriage and private hire service is being run is a shambles.”

The letter was penned by Asif Shah, manager of Shipley Central, who said he had witnessed the driver of another firm being stopped by enforcement officers and the police last week and arrested for smoking cannabis between jobs.

He said: “They said it’s not very good for the firm. I said it’s not the firm’s reputation that’s at stake, it’s the private hire trade’s reputation.”

Mr Shah said while this driver had been stopped, “nine times out of ten, there are no enforcement officers”.

And he said while operators could dismiss irresponsible drivers, the drivers could take a job elsewhere and only the licensing service could kick them out of the trade for good.

But a spokesman for Bradford Council refuted Mr Shah’s claims, saying: “We do not accept any of his criticisms as legitimate, particularly in regard to enforcement. Random safety checks, which Mr Shah mentions, is proof of enforcement rather than an example of lack of enforcement as he claims.

“The number of enforcement officers has increased from four to seven over the last four years and we have officers on patrol daily and on most weekends. The enforcement officers’ role is to educate and enforce.”

The spokesman said public safety was the Council’s number one priority and they took immediate action if vehicles failed either their standard annual inspections or random tests.

He added: “Mr Shah mentions examples of violence, theft and vandalism to taxi drivers but these and other criminal offences are matters which should be reported to the police.”

The letter was sent to Bradford’s three Labour MPs, Imran Hussain, Naz Shah and Judith Cummins, as well as Conservative MP for Shipley, Philip Davies. All four of them said they were looking into the concerns raised.

Mr Davies said: “Clearly they are raising some legitimate concerns, so I have taken it up with Bradford Council and we’ll see what they have got to say for themselves.”

Bradford Council’s regulatory and appeals committee will meet today to discuss proposed measures to crack down on vehicle standards, including hiking the fees that drivers pay if they fail the tests.