West Yorkshire Police suspend FIVE taxis following Kirklees operation
A joint enforcement operation in rural Kirklees has led to the arrest of a drug driver and the suspension of five taxi drivers’ licences.
Officers from Kirklees Police, the council’s licensing team, the DVSA, and Catch and Control officers carried out the crackdown on Manchester Road in Milnsbridge on Friday 7 February.
During the operation, police arrested a man on suspicion of drug driving. Officers also issued Traffic Offence Reports to four drivers for various infractions, including driving without insurance.
Licensing officers stopped 15 taxis for checks. Ten were found to have issues, ranging from missing signage to serious vehicle defects. As a result, five drivers had their licences to carry passengers suspended.
The Kirklees Rural Neighbourhood Policing Team confirmed that further operations are planned to improve road safety in the area.
PC Grifford, Kirklees Rural NPT, said: “We know from speaking with our residents that road safety remains a real concern of theirs as it does for us.
“The winter weather can obviously introduce extra hazards into our day to day driving and it’s really important we all drive safely and vehicles are kept road worthy.
“This operation saw police and partners take action against a number of drivers whose vehicles were not properly road worthy including several taxi drivers, as well as arrest a male for drug driving.
“More operations of this kind will be carried out and we urge anyone who has concerns about such offending in their community to contact us, as we do use information from residents to help us plan our activity.”
