Taxi drivers working in Wokingham struggling to earn a living during the Covid-19 pandemic will have to pay an extra £42 over the next year for their licence.

Wokingham Borough Council has decided to increase the fee for hackney carriage and private hire vehicle licences from £248 to £290 in 2020/21.

Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors called for the fees to be frozen at £248 during a meeting of the council’s Licensing Committee on March 9.

But the Conservatives refused, after stating the hiked fees will be used to cover the council’s administrative costs and taxi drivers have been offered grants and other support.

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Cllr Rachel Burgess (Labour) said: “We all know that taxi incomes have plummeted, so I don’t think we should be expecting taxi drivers to accept a rise in their fees.

“They were clearly expecting a drop in the fees as they haven’t been able to do their job.

“I don’t know how they are supposed to afford these fees when some of them are using foodbanks and really, really struggling.”

She added: “Three years ago, the fees for a hackney carriage were £157 and they are now £290, so they’ve almost doubled.”

Cllr Sarah Kerr (Liberal Democrat) said: “I don’t see how we can put an increase to these taxi drivers who are really struggling.”

Cllr Lindsay Ferris (Liberal Democrat) said drivers have lost around 80 per cent of their income during the pandemic and many of them have missed out on furlough and other support grants.

Sean Murphy, Public Protection Manager, said: “There are grants to assist some of those in the taxi trade, but there weren’t any specific.

“I’ve no doubt, there will be people who have fallen through various cracks in the nine support schemes that are there.”

Council figures show 18 hackney carriage drivers and 23 private hire drivers in Wokingham have quit during the pandemic.

However, Conservative councillors claimed it would not be fair to freeze fees for taxi drivers or offer a discount, when other local businesses that have been hit hard by the pandemic continue to pay their fees.

Cllr Chris Bowering said: “Other businesses have to pay licensing fees as well and we have not considered subsidising them. Their licences have gone up as well.

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“I don’t know if they have suffered as much as the taxi drivers, possibly not, but that is something that ought to be taken into account.

“Their licences are set to cover costs.”

Cllr Emma Hobbs added: “If we say we are going to freeze the taxi drivers fees, word of mouth will go round like wildfire to every other organisation that has a licence and we’ll have anarchy – absolute anarchy.”

The Licensing Committee agreed to review the fees in June after more work is done to assess the impact of the pandemic on taxi drivers and the support they have been offered.

They will then decide whether the drivers’ licence fees should be subsidised.

If a subsidy is approved, monthly payments made by the drivers after June will be smaller.