CHANGES to City of York Council's licensing procedure could help crack down on taxi drivers from outside of York working in the city.

Currently, if someone is refused a licence in York, they have two avenues of appeal - firstly to a sub-committee of the licensing group, and secondly to magistrates.

A meeting on Monday heard CYC was unique in the region for offering these options, and neighbouring authorities had called on the council to remove the sub-committee option and bring procedures more in-line with other areas.

Cllr Sam Lisle: "A lot of the work we've been doing as an authority with West Yorkshire authorities, standardising the taxi licensing process and the real reason and drive behind that is the result of the deregulation act which has seen a lot of out of town drivers in York and other areas which caused a lot of issues.

"There have been examples where individuals seeking a licence might be rejected in one authority and might be an individual with nefarious objectives in getting a licence, as they have access to vulnerable people, and you can then try to get access to a licence through other authorities. If we have different rules, we run the risk of getting access to a licence in one area where they might have been refused in others."

The council has also voluntarily signed up to a national database which will log the reasons for any taxi licence refusals, which can be accessed by participating authorities, to help crack down on criminal behaviour.

Cllr Lisle said: "By having a dual track appeals process you're effectively increasing the chances of overturning the original decision. By reducing that to a single track, not only standardising that process with other authorities, but potentially reducing the chance of someone who shouldn't be granted a licence getting one on appeal."

The proposed changes were approved by a majority vote.