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.
