The Local Government Association (LGA) has welcomed the Home Office announcement that councils will not be prevented from requesting enhanced Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks when licensing drivers of taxis and minicabs.

Licensing officials have been allowed to carry out enhanced CRB checks on potential drivers for the past 10 years. But the government had looked at scrapping the practice, prompting lobbying by the Local Government Association and Transport for London – and now these plans have been dropped.

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Addison Lee chairman John Griffin says the London 2012 Olympics will be “damaging” to his company – and potentially to the whole taxi and private hire industry.

The boss of the capital’s biggest private hire fleet operator said London’s roads would be gridlocked during the Olympics – and he urged Olympic spectators to take the Tube, adding that giving visitors priority over regular customers would be “business suicide”.

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London’s West End will be abandoned to illegal touts and unlicensed minicabs unless Westminster Council reverses its policies on car parking, a senior trade union official has warned.

Terry Flanagan of the GMB Professional Drivers Branch said: “Westminster Council’s parking restrictions are deterring licensed cab drivers from operating in the West End. This in turn is exacerbating an already dangerous problem as even more unlicensed touts operate picking up unsuspecting passengers from clubs, pubs, theatres and music venues that are the lifeblood of the West End’s economy.

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The Lewis Day name looks set to disappear from London’s streets after the company’s passenger cars division was bought by rival London private hire giant Addison Lee for an undisclosed sum.

In a separate deal, Lewis Day founder, South African Hilton Lewis, has sold the company’s courier division to rival Citysprint. Lewis owned 70% of the business, with his management team owning the balance of the shares. 

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Tristar Worldwide has renewed its solus supply deal with Volvo. A new three-year deal will see Volvo supply 700 cars a year to Tristar, mainly to chauffeur Virgin Atlantic Airlines’ Upper Class passengers to and from UK airports.

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