Councillors have shown compassion for a Bristol taxi driver whose license expired while he was in Somalia caring for his dying mother during the pandemic. The taxi driver’s permit expired during his trip to Africa from October 2020 to October last year, which he had planned to last only two months but was extended when his sick mother contracted Covid-19 and died.
It meant that his diesel hackney carriage’s vehicle license, which was due to expire in January 2021, had to be treated as a new application, as Bristol City Council policy states that no new diesel licenses will be issued. However, members of the public safety and protection subcommittee agreed that due to the exceptional circumstances, an exception to the rules should be granted.
The driver had been a cabbie for seven years, according to minutes from a private City Hall meeting on January 18. “His mother, who lived in Somalia, was sick in October 2020, and he went out to help her,” the papers state.
“He had a ticket to return in December 2020, but he had to stay in Somalia longer than planned due to his mother’s illness. His mother died in March 2021, and he was unable to return to the UK for another two or three months due to travel restrictions.”
According to the minutes, he had not worked since returning to Bristol, causing financial difficulties. While he could have applied online in Somalia, he said he was in a “very difficult situation” because his mother was sick and the “security situation was poor due to the number of deaths that were occurring.”