THE manager of a large Bradford taxi firm has praised the efforts of hard-working council licensing officers, who have faced a huge workload in the wake of the full lockdown.

"In this pandemic Bradford Council has done a really good job," said Kaz Shehzad, manger of Wibsey-based taxi firm Local Cars and Jennys. "The licensing officers, who have twice the workload they usually have, are working from home but have kept many drivers on the road."

The news comes after Bradford East MP Imran Hussain's comments last week when he criticised Bradford Council's treatment of hackney carriage and private hire drivers.

Mr Hussain said that over recent weeks, numerous taxi drivers have approached him about the council’s Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Service, with drivers deeply concerned about their treatment and way the service has been working.

The majority of the concerns raised with Mr Hussain centre around “excessive delays” in issuing new licenses to drivers which have expired over recent months.

He said the delays have left drivers unable to work and facing financial difficulties at a time when they have already experienced large shortfalls in income due to the decrease in passengers created by the pandemic.

Mr Shehzad, who employs 150 cabbies at Local Cars and Jennys, explained that because of the pandemic and a decrease in trade for the drivers, many of them had decided to let their licenses elapse.

He said the council's licensing department sends an email o drivers six weeks before their license expires,giving them time put all of their documentation together to receive a new license.

However, when the lockdown measures were eased many drivers were keen to return to work as soon as possible to start earning.

But Mr Shehzad explained that when a license expires, "drivers have to start over again and the process usually takes six weeks" and when the licensing officers were coming back in with double or triple the workload drivers were upset they did not receive a quicker response.

Mr Shehzad said: "The officers concentrated on licenses expiring and their priority was to keep drivers on the road.

"The council gave drivers extended plates without booking them for a test for up to four months. And cars with expiring licenses due to their age even received this."

Mr Shehzad also pointed out that it is important to educate drivers on how to fill out license application forms, how to submit the documents and making sure that they subscribe to keeping CRB check up-to-date.

"If drivers do everything properly from the start they won't have an issue."

Mr Shehzad praised the hard work of his drivers during the pandemic, many of them whose earnings were reduced by 70 per cent during this time.

"They've been out there risking their lives during this pandemic. They don't know anything about the customers who enter their vehicle. They're doing and extremely good job and we really appreciate that."

Mr Shehzad the council's enforcement officers have worked well with his taxi firm going out of their way to make cars safe for drivers and customers.

"It's about us all working together during this pandemic," added Mr Shehzad.