SCORES of complaints have been made against private hire and black cab drivers licensed by Oldham Council – with dozens taken off the roads.

A report presented to the council’s licensing committee states that in the past year the town hall has received 171 complaints about its drivers, operators and vehicles.

These range from accusations of dangerous driving, overcharging, and the cabby chatting on their phone while at the wheel.

The biggest issue for both hackney and private hire drivers is attitude and behaviour, which forms the basis of 70 complaints.

Second to this is dangerous driving, with 29 complaints being made about private hire drivers compared to just two incidents for hackney drivers.

Private hire drivers have also been accused of failing to report an accident, refusing to carry a guide dog, and smoking in the vehicle.

There were two complaints of "illegal behaviour" and two "sexual related" complaints – all four were made against private hire drivers.

In the past two years the number of drivers licensed by the authority has ballooned – with 300 new cabbies on the roads.

It’s a 13 pc increase from 2,193 in 2016, to 2,493 as of this May.

Since last June the authority has held 37 hearings to rule on whether to grant taxi licenses where offences or conduct issues have been flagged up.

The majority were applications for new or licence renewals. Just one was granted outright, with 23 refused and eight granted "with suspension".

There were five reviews of licences, with all of them being suspended.

And in the past year, 29 pc of licensed vehicles have failed their mechanical tests.

The committee report states: “Officers continue to work with the private hire and hackney trade to ensure effective communication and consultation takes place.”

Town hall chiefs say the main area of work currently being undertaken is with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Transport for Greater Manchester (TFGM) on the "harmonisation" of private hire and hackney licensing policies.

They say the "major" piece of work, which will report in the autumn, is aimed at ensuring high standards across the region, as well as consistency.

A consultation will be launched in July for twelve weeks to the trade and TFGM will undertake the public consultation alongside it.

The areas to be covered – to ensure Oldham is "consistent" – include age of vehicles linked to emissions and air quality, a spoken English test and a drivers’ code of conduct.

They will also be looking to update the "fit and proper" guidelines for determining applications and reviewing licences, improving vehicle testing standards, and a private hire operator code of conduct and safeguarding policy.