Bedford private hire driver kept licence after 'pushing' enforcement officer who gave him a parking ticket

A private hire driver who pushed an enforcement officer after being issued a parking ticket kept their licence, a meeting heard.

The incident happened outside a school where the driver was carrying his daughter who had “allegedly damaged her ankle”.

A report to Bedford Borough Council’s General Licensing Committee last week (December 14) said there was a discussion between the driver and the officer, who eventually walked away.

It added that the officer was pursued by the driver who appeared to push the officer before the officer pushed him back. The incident was captured on a body worn camera.

The report added that two teachers repeatedly told the driver to calm down.

Committee members heard that the private hire driver was suspended for one week, but kept their licence, despite this being a “very serious matter.”

Councillor Leigh Coombs (Lib Dem, Shortstown) said: “Professional drivers should be setting an example, let alone outside of school.

“But certainly demonstrating violence towards an official outside of a school in front of children, I find that really, really, concerning. I would hope that perhaps this council has the ability to come down very hard in circumstances like this. And [it] has the full support of members that instances like this.

"Potentially [this] could warrant revoking of their licence. This is not acceptable, I think we do need to send a strong message.”

Lee Phanco, chief officer for assessment, application & business support, said: “I did consider very carefully whether it would be appropriate to revoke the licence taking into account all the circumstances.

“My conclusion was that although it was an extremely serious matter, and certainly something that we wouldn’t want to see repeated, given the particular circumstances revocation wasn’t appropriate.

“Obviously I can’t go into too much detail about the particular incident in a public meeting, but it was given very careful consideration, I can assure you of that. The 10-point penalty was quite a considerable penalty.

“Hopefully it was a one-off incident in a particular set of circumstances and the driver has learnt his lesson.”

The driver was suspended for one week and had 10 penalty points imposed for “rudeness towards, failure to cooperate with or obstruction of a council officer”.