In recent days, it was reported that Sefton Council had a two-year delay in processing taxi and private hire licence applications that resulted in a large "taxi company" sending its drivers to Wolverhampton.  The news report initially reported on an email from Sefton Council, in which it appears that an officer indicated that there was a 2 year "waiting list" for new driver applications.

However, Sefton Council said in a statement that this information is not accurate. 

Responding to the allegations, a Sefton Council spokesperson told the ECHO that some taxi drivers have waited two years for their applications to be processed, although also claimed there was no longer a two-year wait.

The spokesperson said: “We can confirm that there is not a two-year wait on new applications. However, owing to the demand on our service and the restrictions that were necessary during the pandemic, we have a number of applications that date back to from September 2020.”

The spokesperson added that the council was “currently working through the backlog of applications received two years” with a trade meeting arranged this week “to discuss how we plan to work through the high volume of applications.”

The spokesperson added: “Our customer services teams and licensing officers have been dedicated to working with taxi drivers and firms over what has been a challenging two years for everyone.

“They have continued to support drivers ensuring all driver and vehicle licences are processed in a timely manner, and in fact in August 2022 over 80 new drivers were licenced.