COMPLAINTS against Bradford cabbies have been revealed - from the serious to the bizarre.

A total of 470 complaints were received by Bradford Council over the past year about drivers of Hackney Carriages and Private Hire Vehicles.

And they range from alleged sexual assaults and attacks to defecating in a public place and suspicions of cat smuggling.

The mundane, such as being late for a pick-up, features as does the irritating like a driver refusing to reverse to allow someone to park while at the other end of the scale are accusations of possession of drugs and attacking passengers.

Typical complaints about overcharging, bad driving and rat-running are all listed.

But Nadeem Iqbal, who is chairman of the Private Hire Operators Association for Drivers and Operators, said the number of complaints was relatively small compared to the number of journeys made by the more than 7,000 licensed drivers in Bradford.

The Freedom of Information request to Bradford Council’s Hackney Carriages and Private Hire Service revealed that a total of 203 of the complaints were about driving or parking infringements, 132 about conduct, 19 about rule breaking, 26 about serious incidents, 25 about overcharging, 16 about defective vehicles, seven about offences of sexual/CSE etc and 15 concerned plying for hire.

Bad driving complaints feature cases of driving through red lights, cutting up other drivers, parking in disabled bays and overtaking dangerously.

Of the 470 complaints, 206 were upheld, 151 were not upheld, 48 were partially upheld and 61 were dismissed because of insufficient evidence.

Mr Iqbal said: "We have a few that drive like idiots but 99% are good."

He said the list of complaints does not include the whole picture about the case. For example, someone who was seen urinating in public may have had a medical condition.

He said overcharging should not be an issue because almost all cabs now have meters and fares a posted in vehicles.

As to complaints of bad driving, he said: "99.9% of drivers will get you to your destination safely, just 0.1% are bad drivers."

Stuart Hastings, chairman of Keighley Private Hire Association, said Bradford Council should be a lot stricter about who they allow to be cab drivers.

He said: "People should have references. They used to have a driving test. The standards are not tight enough.

"The quality of cars is bad and the quality of drivers is bad."

He said his company has its own complaints procedure and had sacked someone for bad driving this week but "a lot of times we have found the driver not to be at fault".

The disabled can suffer with allegations of parking bays being misused, accesses blocked, wheelchairs not secured in vehicles and people with hearing dogs or guide dogs being refused carriage.

Other animals involved in complaints are dogs and cats that have been run over.

And parking wardens and other road users also were the object of alleged behaviour from abuse to attacks.

Misdemeanours involving drivers in York also figure highly in the list of complaints. The allegations include bad driving there and disputes with Hackney Carriage drivers from the city while drivers from York were also cited as being abusive to North Yorkshire Police.

In July 2017 the T&A reported that Uber drivers from Bradford were accused of sleeping in their vehicles in York so that they could pick up fares in the city while in July we reported that a Bradford Uber driver had been fined £1,400 for working illegally in the city.

Drivers can also be on the the receiving end of abuse and in November we reported how another Uber driver from Bradford received an apology from police after a man who racially abused him was given just a caution.

And there is evidence of cabbies not getting on with complaints about drivers plying for hire when they should not from their colleagues to threatening each other at taxi ranks and spitting at each other.

Other road users like bus drivers and refuse collectors were also allegedly at the receiving end of bad behaviour.

Dangerous behaviour listed is not just restricted to having potentially unroadworthy vehicles or using mobile phones while driving - there were allegations of drivers actually driving at people. They were also accused of knocking them down, hitting customers and sexually assaulting them.

Variously, cabbies were also accused of smoking weed, drinking, eating and watching cricket while they are driving.