Key Points
- Bristol City Council minutes reveal that drivers caught speeding, using mobile phones, running red lights and overtaking cyclists closely were still allowed to keep their licences.
- The monthly three-councillor licensing panel hears these cases in private, with the press and public excluded.
- An analysis of 137 pages of meeting minutes covering 11 months found 14 speeding drivers were permitted to keep working, sometimes after only a short suspension.
- One driver who had previously been caught texting while driving and “almost hitting a pedestrian” was later seen with his phone on his lap in Bedminster and received a one-month suspension.
- Another driver, identified only as PI, drove along a pavement to avoid traffic and said it was a “momentary lapse of judgement” while trying to get an elderly woman to a medical appointment on time.
- South Gloucestershire Council has also faced criticism after a suspended driver continued to work and reportedly picked up about 1,000 more passengers.
Bristol Council (Bristol Express News) June 8, 2026 – Bristol City Council is under fresh scrutiny after newly published taxi licensing minutes showed that drivers with serious road-safety offences were repeatedly allowed to keep their licences, despite concerns about passenger protection and public safety.
How did the minutes emerge?
Bristol, Local Democracy Reporting Service, June 8, 2026 – newly published council minutes have exposed the way Bristol’s taxi licensing panel has been handling cases involving “dodgy drivers”, according to reporting by the Local Democracy Reporting Service. The panel, made up of three councillors, meets behind closed doors and its proceedings are confidential, meaning the public and press cannot attend.
The disclosure comes after an analysis of 137 pages of minutes spanning 11 months, which showed what campaigners and observers may see as a pattern of limited consequences for some repeat offenders. The cases included speeding, red-light offences, mobile phone use, close overtaking of cyclists and pavement driving.
What offences were recorded?
As reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the minutes show that 14 drivers caught speeding were still allowed to continue working, in some cases after only brief suspensions. The same records also refer to three drivers caught using their phones, two drivers who overtook cyclists closely, and one who ran a red light.
In one case from June last year, a driver was caught driving through Bedminster with his phone on his lap. The same driver had already been involved in a 2018 incident in which he was caught texting while driving and “almost hitting a pedestrian”, yet the later sanction was only a one-month suspension.
Another case involved a driver identified only as PI, who mounted and drove along a pavement to get around traffic. He later argued that it was a “momentary lapse of judgement” because he was trying to get an elderly lady to her medical appointment on time.
What do the council minutes show?
The minutes suggest that the licensing panel is often prepared to allow drivers to remain on the road despite worrying conduct, provided councillors decide the circumstances do not justify revocation. In practice, this means some drivers face short suspensions rather than losing their badges altogether.
Bristol City Council’s own licensing information says that convictions and penalties do not automatically stop someone from holding a licence, but they can trigger a committee hearing to decide whether the person is “fit and proper” to drive passengers. The council also states that it can consider offending behaviour from previous licensing history or information from other agencies, including police and other authorities.
Why is the issue controversial?
The controversy centres on the gap between the responsibility taxi drivers carry and the scale of the sanctions revealed in the minutes. Drivers transport passengers, often at night or in vulnerable circumstances, so critics argue that road-safety breaches should be treated more seriously.
There is also concern that local licensing decisions do not always stop unsafe drivers from working elsewhere. South Gloucestershire Council was previously criticised after a suspended cabbie continued driving through a ride-hailing app and reportedly collected around 1,000 more passengers. That case raised wider questions about whether existing licensing rules are strong enough to protect the public when drivers can keep operating during appeals or across council boundaries.
How do local rules work?
Bristol City Council says drivers must disclose convictions, cautions and a range of other penalties, and the authority can take these into account at renewal or committee hearings. It also says applicants and licence holders can be asked to provide driving history, DBS checks, medical clearance and safeguarding training.
Nationally, the government introduced a compulsory database in 2023 so councils can record drivers whose licences are refused, suspended or revoked for safeguarding or road-safety reasons. The Department for Transport said the aim was to stop drivers simply reapplying in another area after losing a licence somewhere else.
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What is the wider background?
Taxi licensing in England has been under sustained pressure in recent years because of concerns about “out of area” working, enforcement inconsistency and gaps between councils. The BBC reported in January 2026 that the government opened a consultation on reforms to tackle out-of-area private hire licensing, saying such arrangements can limit a council’s ability to act quickly when a driver has safety concerns in another district.
Bristol has already been reviewing parts of its taxi system. In May 2025, the BBC reported that Bristol City Council decided to discontinue the local route-knowledge test for taxi drivers, with the authority citing national guidance and the growing use of sat-nav systems. That change was separate from the misconduct cases now under discussion, but it formed part of the broader debate about standards, enforcement and modern licensing practice.
What happens next?
The minutes do not show any immediate policy change, but they are likely to keep pressure on Bristol City Council to explain how it balances public safety with the rights of licensed drivers. The council’s published policy shows that it already has the power to assess conduct and apply conditions, suspensions or refusals where appropriate.
The disclosure may also prompt closer scrutiny of how councils in the Bristol area share information and manage repeat offenders who can continue working while appeals are pending.
Background of this development
This story sits within a longer-running national debate over taxi and private hire regulation in England. Councils are expected to screen drivers carefully, but licensing is split across many authorities, and that can make enforcement uneven when drivers work in areas different from the one that issued their licence. Bristol’s own licensing material shows that convictions and other penalties can still be considered, but they do not automatically end a driver’s career.
The recent minutes matter because they offer a rare look at how those rules are applied in practice. They also come after repeated warnings nationally that councils need stronger tools to stop unsafe drivers from moving between licensing areas or carrying on while disputes are resolved.
Prediction
For Bristol passengers, the most likely effect is continued debate over whether taxi licensing rules are strict enough to protect public safety, especially where repeated driving offences are involved. For drivers, the issue could mean tighter scrutiny at renewal, more committee hearings and greater reliance on shared national records if councils decide to act more firmly. For local authorities, pressure may build to make decisions more transparent and more consistent, particularly when similar offences appear to attract different outcomes.
