Saturday April 9, 2022
Councillors have taken pity on a Bristol cabbie whose
licence expired while he was caring for his dying mother in Somalia during the
pandemic. The driver’s taxi permit ran out during his visit to Africa from
October 2020 to October last year, which he had intended to be for only two
months but was extended when his sick mum then caught Covid-19 and later died.
It meant the vehicle licence for his diesel hackney
carriage, which was up for renewal in January 2021, had to be treated as a new
application, and Bristol City Council policy states no new licences will be
issued for diesels. But public safety & protection sub-committee members
agreed the exceptional circumstances meant an exemption to the rules should be
allowed and granted the licence.
Recently published minutes from the private City Hall
meeting on January 18 say the driver had been a cabbie for seven years. The
papers say: “In October 2020 his mum who lived in Somalia was sick and he went
out to help her.
“He had a ticket to return in December 2020 but had to stay
in Somalia longer than anticipated as his mum caught covid and was still
unwell. His mother died in March 2021 and, due to travel restrictions, he was
unable to get back to the UK for another two or three months.”
The minutes say that since returning to Bristol, he had not
been working, which had caused financial problems. He told the panel that while
he could have made an online application in Somalia, he had faced a “very
difficult situation” as his mother was unwell and the “security situation was
poor due to the number of deaths that were taking place”.
The minutes say his vehicle is a Euro 6, making it compliant
with the forthcoming Clean Air Zone, although members were told CAZ exemptions
were a separate matter to the application. He produced a certificate of good
character, required under council policy for applicants coming from abroad,
after Avon & Somerset Police took his fingerprints and sent them to Somalia
to confirm this.
The minutes say: “Members noted that the council’s policy
clearly stated that if a vehicle licence lapsed, an application to renew would
be seen as a new application and no new diesel vehicles are to be licensed.
However, they found that (the driver) had not been in a position to renew the
vehicle licence when it was due, owing to circumstances beyond his control.
“Therefore these were exceptional circumstances and it was
appropriate to grant an exemption to the policy.”