Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council’s General Licensing Committee has opted to retain the existing hackney-carriage fare structure for now, rather than advance a proposed increase. The committee’s position is not the final council decision, and the current fares have not been replaced.
The matter was considered at a special General Licensing Committee meeting on 3 September 2026. The committee’s view is due to be referred to Mark Thomas, the council’s Joint Director of Neighbourhoods and Environment, who is reported to hold the final decision-making responsibility.
The council had consulted its hackney-carriage trade during May on proposed changes to the table of fares. The consultation was sent to 118 drivers, but only three responses were received. Two respondents supported an increase, although one sought a different approach to waiting-time charging. A further respondent put forward an alternative tariff proposal.
The main advertised proposal would have increased the daytime Tariff 1 charge from £4.00 to £4.50 for the first mile or part of a mile. It would also have introduced a charge of 23p for each subsequent one-twelfth of a mile. The proposed starting fare was therefore 50p higher than the existing charge. Separate options for night and festive tariffs had also been discussed.
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The review followed requests from taxi drivers amid higher operating costs, including fuel. However, according to contemporaneous reporting of the meeting, committee members chose not to proceed with the proposed increase at this stage. The decision does not reduce fares; it leaves the existing table in place while the final position remains outstanding.
Members also discussed the possibility of revisiting the issue if circumstances materially change. Reporting of the meeting indicated that a request from 11 drivers, equivalent to 10% of the trade, could trigger reconsideration.
The council’s statutory public notice had set 9 July 2026 as the deadline for objections to the proposed table. It stated that, if objections remained unresolved, the council would determine the tariff with or without modification.
Blaenau Gwent’s 2026 Future Travel document describes the licensed trade as predominantly hackney carriage, with only three private-hire vehicles reported. The latest committee position concerns a proposed maximum hackney-carriage tariff and does not confirm that any revised fares have taken legal effect.
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