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.
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“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.”
