Taxi and private hire

Taxi Licensing Policy

Cheshire East Council has recent approved a new taxi licensing policy. This policy is due to take effect from the 1 November 2022. All applications and taxi matters received after the 1 November will be processes and determined in line with this policy. Any previous policies or conditions will be superseded.

Hackney carriage and private hire licensing policy 2022 - 2027 (PDF, 4.7MB)

Taxi and private hire licensing

If you want to carry passengers for hire and reward – the reward could be money or not – using a vehicle with eight passenger seats or fewer, you will need a licence. For example, a hotel offering a pick-up or drop-off service will need a licence, even if the passengers don’t pay a fee.

There are two main types of vehicle that we can license for public hire:

Private Hire – with this licence, you can only work from private hire operators base.
Hackney Carriage – with this licence you can work from the town’s taxi ranks and be hailed on the street. Hackney carriages can also work through a private hire operator.

For private hire or hackney carriage work, both the driver and vehicle must be licensed. A driver of the vehicle may also need an operator’s licence if they are taking private hire bookings directly.

Hackney carriage and private hire licensing policy 2022-2027 (PDF, 3.47 MB)