Posted on the 7th November 2025 in PHTM News

NORTH EAST LINCOLNSHIRE COUNCILLORS APPROVE KEY LICENSING CHANGES

Councillors in North East Lincolnshire have approved significant changes to local taxi licensing, including a slight increase in tariff rates and a doubling of the fee for passengers who soil a vehicle.

The North East Lincolnshire Council's licensing and community protection committee completed a year-long process to decide on hackney carriage policy.

Key Policy Decisions

  • Tariff Increase: All taxi tariffs will rise by 50p for the first mile of any trip, the first increase since February 2022. This change was described as "quite reasonable" by Cllr Sheldon Mill (Labour - South), who noted the nearly four-year gap since the last increase, observing drily to traders, "You've mentioned car insurance, I don't think that's stood still."

  • "Soil Charge" Doubled: The fee levied when passengers are sick in or on a taxi will double from £50 to £100. Wayne Crouch, from the NEL Hackney Carriage Association, explained the reason: "The reason being if you get somebody sick in your car or out of it, times before you could get a valet for £40 or £50. Now, for a proper valet it costs £80 or £90." He added that the charge is mainly "more of a deterrent."

  • Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles (WAVs): To combat the dwindling proportion of local WAVs (now 16 per cent), new hackney carriage applicants must have WAV vehicles, and current WAVs must remain as such. To boost numbers, the vehicle age limit for getting a first licence for a WAV was increased from five years to eight years. One respondent wrote that the stricter five-year rule "unintentionally limits the number of accessible vehicles on our roads."

  • Hackney Carriage Limit Maintained: Following a consultation where 66 out of 68 respondents backed the policy, the 220 limit on the number of licensed taxis will be kept.

  • Fuel Type: New hackney carriages will not be restricted to electric and hybrid only, with similarly overwhelming approval from the trade to continue allowing all vehicle fuel source types.

The changes to tariffs and the soil charge were agreed unanimously.


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