Irate taxi drivers in Bedford Borough protested outside Borough Hall on Friday, September 17, 2021.
Bedford’s taxi drivers are up in arms about the over zealous behaviour of the Borough’s inspectors.
The drivers complain that the licenses are being refused for minor paint blemishes, so small that they are not visible until you are on top of them.
Missing ‘no smoking stickers’, ‘orange’ peel paintwork are all grounds for a fail.
Many are just the normal stone chips that the leading edge of a car’s bonnet can expect during its working life.
One driver was totally bemused by the fact that a tinted rear window in his vehicle was deemed too dark although it had passed on two previous occasions!
The test failure is working out to be very expensive, it costs £80 to take the first test and retests are also chargeable.
All in a failure can result in an expenditure of over £300 about the cost to have a car panel resprayed to please the testers.