East Herts wants to remove its 210-vehicle hackney carriage cap after the fleet fell to 175. Nine taxi policy changes go to committee on Wednesday 9 September.

East Herts Council wants to stop limiting the number of taxis on its roads, because the limit has stopped meaning anything.

The council capped hackney carriage vehicle licences in 2020, after an unmet demand survey. The cap was reached at 200 in 2022 and raised to 210 to meet demand. By the end of the 2025/26 financial year the number of licensed hackney carriages had fallen to 175, which the council attributes to market forces.

That leaves 35 licences nobody is applying for. Keeping the cap in place would mean commissioning another unmet demand survey, and the council puts the cost of that at £9,606 excluding VAT, paid for by the hackney carriage vehicle proprietors themselves.

The report going to councillors puts it plainly: “Given that there is now no benefit to the trade, the licensing authority or the public it is proposed to delimit allow market forces to regulate the number of Hackney Carriages licensed by East Herts.”

The proposal is that all reference to a limit be removed.

Nine policy areas, one meeting

The taxi cap is one of nine areas in a package going to the council’s Licensing Committee at 7pm on Wednesday 9 September, in the Council Chamber at Wallfields, Pegs Lane, Hertford. The meeting is public. The other eight are:

  • the Licensing Record Points Scheme
  • vehicle age and emissions
  • vehicle and trailer specifications and conditions
  • driver licence conditions
  • the code of good conduct and dress code
  • the suitability policy
  • private hire operator conditions
  • signs and advertising rules

The committee does not have the final say. It reviews the package and comments to the Executive Member for Planning and Growth, whose recommendation then goes to the Executive and on to full Council for approval.

There is an oddity in the paperwork. Both licensing reports on Wednesday’s agenda are bylined Councillor Vicky Glover-Ward as Executive Member for Planning and Growth. She resigned from the council on 2 September, after more than three years in the post, and Councillor Maura Connolly has taken the portfolio over.

What the trade actually said

The consultation ran for six weeks, from 6 July to 17 August 2026. Licence holders were contacted directly more than once. Fifteen responses came back:

  • 12 from current East Herts hackney carriage or private hire licence holders
  • 2 from East Herts residents
  • 1 completely anonymous

Two of the 15 came from the same individual, so there are 14 respondents. On every one of the nine areas, more of them supported the changes than opposed them. The anonymous respondent disagreed with all of it and gave no reasons.

Stacked bar chart of consultation responses to nine East Herts taxi policy changes, showing agreement and disagreement on each
Removing the vehicle cap split the room more than anything else on the list.

Removing the cap drew five outright objections, the most of any of the nine areas. Officers are recommending that no amendment be made to any of the wording that was consulted on.

The rules that would bind drivers

Three of the changes bite hardest on the people doing the driving.

The points scheme gets shorter, not softer. The Licensing Record Points Scheme is being cut from 88 listed offences to 32, which the council says is to remove unused sections and aid clarity. Points stay live for 24 months. Reach 12 points in a rolling two-year period and the council formally reconsiders whether you are a fit and proper person to hold a licence.

The tariff itself is blunt. Twelve points, which is the whole threshold in one go, is the penalty for each of these:

  • failing to tell the council about a criminal conviction within 48 hours
  • failing to tell the council you have been arrested, cautioned or charged, or are under criminal investigation, within 48 hours
  • failing to declare a serious injury, illness or change in medical circumstances, including eyesight, within 48 hours
  • not holding a current, valid DVLA driving licence
  • permitting the vehicle to be used for any illegal or immoral purpose

Lower down the scale, being verbally abusive or aggressive to a passenger, another driver or a council officer is nine points. Refusing a hiring without reasonable cause is six. So is failing to present the vehicle for inspection when asked.

Points can be appealed in writing within 10 working days, to the Assistant Director for Community and Business Engagement. That decision is final, and the appeal officer can award more points than were originally given as well as fewer. If a licence is suspended or revoked, the appeal goes to Stevenage Magistrates’ Court within 21 days.

Vehicle age and emissions stay strict. A vehicle cannot be licensed for the first time if it was registered more than five years before the application. It cannot be renewed once it is more than 10 years old, or 12 for purpose-built or fully wheelchair accessible vehicles. Euro 6 emissions standards apply at first application and at renewal.

There is a way past the age limits. A vehicle in “exceptional condition” can be considered, but every one of six tests has to be met, including no MOT or council inspection failure on a significant item in the previous five years. The clarification being added is that MOT failures only count while the vehicle has been in the applicant’s ownership, rather than across a blanket five-year period.

The dress code is not a licence condition, but it has teeth. The council does not attach it to any licence. Breaches are dealt with through the points scheme instead. Unacceptable under the code are bare chests, unclean or damaged clothing or footwear, clothing printed with words or graphics that might offend, sports shirts and tracksuits, footwear that stops you driving safely, headgear that conceals the face or identity such as a baseball cap, and shorts other than smart tailored ones. Religious headgear that the DVLA accepts for visibility is exempt.

Two changes worth noticing in the small print

The suitability policy, which decides whether someone is fit and proper to hold a licence at all, picks up English competency as a criterion.

It also loses a paragraph, and the reason given is telling: Hertfordshire Constabulary will no longer routinely respond to consultations on driver applications. The council is removing the paragraph that assumed it would.

The national register the council checks is also being renamed in the policy, from NR3 to NR3S, the National Register of Taxi Licence Refusals, Revocations, and Suspensions. The council says it will be used in the same way as before.

One figure in the equalities section of the report stands out. 42 per cent of the licensed trade in East Herts were born outside the UK and are now British citizens or have the right to work here.

What enforcement actually looks like

A separate report on the same agenda covers licensing activity between 1 April and 30 June 2026. In that quarter the council issued 45 licensing record points across 8 drivers:

  • 28 points across five drivers, for failing to produce documents when the current ones expired, such as medical certificates, DBS checks, MOTs, vehicle condition certificates and insurance
  • 9 points to one driver over a road rage incident, after an interview found both parties at fault and the driver’s behaviour below the council’s standard
  • 4 points for not displaying licence plates or signs correctly
  • 4 points for leaving a vehicle unattended on the Railway Street rank in Hertford

Eight service requests about taxi and private hire licences were received in the same three months. Every driver’s licence issued in the quarter was issued within 30 working days of validation, against a 90 per cent target.

What it means for you

  • If you drive a hackney carriage in East Herts, the cap on the number of vehicles is likely to disappear, and the trade will no longer be asked to fund an unmet demand survey to keep it.
  • If you were waiting for a plate, there were already 35 spare under the current cap. The limit was not what was stopping anyone.
  • If you want to be heard, the Licensing Committee meets at 7pm on Wednesday 9 September in the Council Chamber at Wallfields, Pegs Lane, Hertford. The contact for the meeting is Michele Aves on 01279 502177.
  • If you use taxis in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertford or Ware, nothing changes immediately. Removing a cap that is 35 vehicles above the actual fleet is unlikely to put more cars on the rank by itself.
  • Passenger-facing standards are not being loosened. The vehicle age limits, the Euro 6 requirement, the dress code and the points scheme all stay.

Sources