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Information for Applicants

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Information For Applicants

Background information about taxi testing in Hyndburn:

  1. Hyndburn Borough Council (“the Council”) wishes to appoint up to 5 approved testing stations for taxis and private hire vehicles. Wherever possible the Council wants to appoint garages situated in different areas of Hyndburn.
  2. The appointed testing stations will be expected to carry out DVSA class 4 MOT’s on taxi’s and private hire vehicles and also certify compliance with the Council’s supplementary testing manual. The supplementary testing manual sets out additional standards over and above MOT requirements which the Council requires vehicles to meet in order to be licensed as taxis and private hire vehicles in Hyndburn.
  3. The Council currently licenses 315 private hire vehicles and 55 hackney carriages (both referred to from here on as “taxis”).
  4. When issuing licences for taxi vehicles, the Council’s main aim is to ensure public safety, both for both taxi users and for other road users. The quality and integrity of the taxi testing process is therefore of upmost importance to us.
  5. Taxis are required to undergo testing as follows:
Vehicle age Amount of tests
Vehicles up to 2 years old 1 test per year
Vehicles between 2 and 15 years old 2 tests per year
Vehicles over 15 years old 3 tests per year

 

  1. If a vehicle fails any part of the MOT or compliance test it cannot be licensed as a taxi. We require a retest to be taken within 10 working days of the original test, or a full test will be required. Only one retest is permitted before a new, complete MOT and compliance test is required.
  2. Up until now, all taxis licensed by the Council have been tested by the Council’s own testing station (CVMU). CVMU carries out around 1100 taxi tests per annum. Of these approximately 400 are retests. Once the new testing stations have been appointed CVMU will stop carrying out taxi testing and the vehicles we licence will be required to use one of the approved testing stations for testing. We estimate that this will be in place around March 2026.

 

Application Criteria:

To be appointed as an approved testing station for hackney carriages and private hire vehicles in Hyndburn the garage (referred to below as “the Testing Premises”) must meet the following criteria:

  1. The Testing Premises must be within the geographical boundaries of Hyndburn Borough Council.
  2. The Testing Premises must have been a registered DVSA testing station for a minimum of 12 months and hold a Green DVSA risk rating.
  3. The Testing Premises must have a DVSA authorised test lane and 2 DVSA approved testers with green risk ratings. A minimum of 1 authorised tester must be available at all times when the Testing Premises are open.
  4. Testing must be carried out strictly in accordance with DVSA standards and the Council’s supplementary testing manual (a copy of the testing manual will be supplied to the Testing Premises by the Council, together with details of any future changes to the testing manual).
  5. The Testing Premises must be able to carry out a minimum of 5 full tests per day, Monday to Friday, and 2 full tests on Saturday. All appointments for tests must be made by the customer directly with the Testing Premises.
  6. In accordance with DVSA standards, the Testing Premises must have a dedicated clean and comfortable waiting area for drivers, along with separate customer sanitary facilities.
  7. The Testing Premises must be able to supply and issue compliance certificates or failure certificates, the cost of which is to be included in the test fee. HBC will supply the necessary templates which must be used by the Testing Premises for the certificates. The Testing Premises will issue a certificate to the driver / vehicle owner and a copy of the certificate must be sent to the Council’s Licensing Section digitally on the day of issue. A reliable method (ie a strong broadband connection) must be in place to allow for this information to be emailed to the Council.
  8. The Testing Premises must be able to provide pass / failure data to the Council’s Licensing department on a monthly basis. The Council will supply the Testing Premises with a template for the supply of this information.
  9. The Testing Premises must have a rigorous appeals procedure in operation for DVSA items. Appeals relating to items covered by the Council’s supplementary testing manual must be referred to the Council’s Licensing Section for investigation and resolution.
  10. The Testing Premises must have a customer complaints procedure in operation. Complaints records must be kept by the Testing Premises for taxi related complaints for a minimum of 12 months from the date of the complaint and the Testing Premises must make it’s complaints records available to the Council’s Licensing Section upon request.
  11. The Testing Premises must hold public liability insurance up to £5 million, and employer liability insurance for £1 million. The Testing Premises must supply evidence of its insurance cover to the Council’s Licensing department upon request.
  12. Basic DBS disclosures must be provided to HBC by the Testing Premises annually in respect of the testers and the owners of the Testing Premises.
  13. Quarterly progress meetings will be held with the Council’s Licensing Officers to assess the Testing Premises’ performance and procedures. In addition, an annual inspection of the Testing Premises will be made by the Council’s Licensing Officers, together with random spot checks. In addition, there will be an inspection 6 months after initial approval of the Testing Premises. The Testing Premises must facilitate and co-operate with all such meeting and inspections.
  14. All written records relating to taxi testing must be retained by the Testing Premises for 3 years, and produced to the Council on request.
  15. The Testing Premises must not be owned, controlled or managed by (or have any form of commercial link with) anyone who is registered as a taxi operator, driver or vehicle owner. Similarly, the testers must not be registered as a taxi operator, driver or vehicle owner. The Testing Premises will be required to sign a declaration to this effect with their application and then annually every year afterwards as part of the Council’s ongoing monitoring arrangements.
  16. The Testing Premises must notify the Council’s Licensing Team immediately if there is any change in the ownership, control or management of the Testing Premises. Similarly, the Testing Premises must notify the Council immediately if the Testing Premises become owned, managed or controlled by someone who is registered as a taxi operator, driver or vehicle owner and if any of the testers become registered as a taxi operator, driver or vehicle owner.
  17. The Testing Premises must have either a viewing area for the MOT testing lane or a camera system offering a clear view of the testing area.
  18. The Testing Premises must enter into a data sharing agreement with the Council in respect of the sharing of personal data with the Council in connection with the matters set out above. The Council will supply the template for the data sharing agreement.

 

Selection Process

  1. You must complete the Council’s application form in full and return this to the Council together with the requested supplementary documents and the initial application fee of £50.00. The application must be returned to the following address by 16th January 2026: Licensing Manager, Scaitcliffe House, Ormerod Street, Accrington, BB5 0PF
  2. The Council will assess your application and will reject it if it does not meet the Council’s selection criteria (see above). The Council may also reject your application if it is incomplete or if, in the Council’s opinion, it contains false or incorrect information.
  3. If your application is accepted, the Council will arrange a visit to your garage for an inspection.

(The inspection will only be carried out after you have paid the inspection fee of £120.00. If you fail to pay the inspection fee within 10 days of the Council’s request your application may be rejected).

  1. Once the inspection process is complete the Council will select up to 5 garages for approval status. When making this selection the Council will take account of the following:
  • Geographical spread – the Council wish to ensure that the selected garages are as spread out across the Borough as possible,
  • Service – the quality of the service offered by your garage based upon its opening hours, the number of testers, the number of testing slots available and the customer facilities,
  • Fees – the fees you propose to charge for taxi testing.
  1. The selected garages will be offered approved testing station status. The award of such status will be subject to:
    1. Payment of the set-up fee of £80.00
    2. Completion of a data sharing agreement with the Council
    3. Agreement to the Council’s terms and conditions for an approved testing station.
    4. The owner of the garage and the approved testers providing satisfactory basic DBS checks to the Council.
  2. If a selected garage does not meet the conditions set out in 5) above within a reasonable period of time the Council may withdraw the offer of approved testing station status and may offer this to another garage instead.

 

Application Fees

To avoid garages incurring unnecessary expenses, the application fee is payable in instalments based on progression through the application process. Fees are payable as follows:

 

Fee Type Cost Payment of fee
Initial Application Fee £50 per garage Payable upon submission of the application form.
Inspection Fee £120

Payable if your garage is assessed as meeting the required criteria.

*The fee must be paid before the garage is inspected by the Council.
Set Up Fee £80 Final fee payable upon completion of the process.

 

The fees are not refundable if your application is withdrawn or unsuccessful