Council blunder means Plymouth PH drivers can avoid knowledge test

A Plymouth City Council blunder has meant new private hire drivers will not have to take a knowledge test of the city’s streets.

Councillors voted to accept a controversial new taxi licensing policy in March 2022 - but a misprint that wasn’t noticed meant they approved the test only for new hackney drivers.

So from May 1, new private hire drivers do not have to take a knowledge test. Now councillors want to amend the error, but cannot do so until a full council meeting, which can’t be called until after the May local elections.

It is the second taxi-related blunder to hit the council after it emerged that signs directing the public to new city centre taxi ranks had not been put in place. Drivers said they were losing income because customers didn’t know where to find a taxi while the traditional Old Town Street rank was out of commission due to city centre redevelopment works.

Martin Leaves, secretary of the hackney cabbies’ Plymouth Licensed Taxi Association (PLTA), said: “Some people say not having the knowledge test would make it quicker to recruit drivers, but do we want them driving around using a satnav? We want drivers to be professional, and to be professional they should do the knowledge test.”

Plymouth councillors approved the Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy 2022 at its March full council meeting. The police has been dogged with controversy because it removes the limit on hackney cab numbers and insists that “black cabs” are painted green and white by 2027.

The council had wanted to remove the necessity of private hire drivers having to pass the Knowledge of Plymouth (KOP) Topographical Test. But although the policy had been dropped, the document the councillors voted for still contained the wording “Topographical Knowledge of Plymouth (KOP) test (for hackney carriage applications only)”.

A Plymouth City Council spokesperson said: “We are sorry for any confusion caused and will be reviewing this to determine whether to return the policy back to full council.”