Only two of Calderdale’s 1,132 private hire vehicles are wheelchair accessible, the council’s Cabinet member for public services told full council — a stark gap for disabled residents who rely on booked cars rather than ranks.
The figures were confirmed by Coun Peter Hunt after questions from Graham Hale and Coun Margot Puddepha (Green, Hebden Bridge and Todmorden East), Local Democracy Reporting via the Telegraph & Argus. Hale said wheelchair users and disability groups across Calderdale — especially in the upper Calder Valley — report “significant barriers”, citing scarce accessible vehicles, overcharging, safety worries and weak disability-awareness training. He asked for a public meeting, in person and online, with licensing officers and the Cabinet member.
Hackneys better — but not all
Of 43 hackney carriages, 34 are wheelchair accessible. None of a further 15 “executive” vehicles are. That undercuts Calderdale’s own passenger advice, which still states that all hackney carriages are accessible and that many private hire cars will carry wheelchairs if you check when booking. Puddepha said local wheelchair users report that not every hackney is accessible — and Hunt’s numbers back that up.
Since the end of 2024, new Calderdale hackney licences have required a wheelchair-accessible vehicle, Hunt said. Remaining “grandfather” rights now die with the vehicle rather than transferring to a replacement. The authority also offers age-limit incentives for accessible stock: wheelchair-accessible vehicles can stay licensed longer than a standard saloon — up to 14 years rather than 12 under the council’s published compliance testing standards — and older WAVs can be re-licensed later than non-accessible cars. Hunt said officers have attended Calderdale Disability Partnership meetings and would do so again.
Why private hire matters
In practice, most Calderdale bookings run through private hire operators. Two WAVs in a fleet of more than a thousand means almost every wheelchair journey depends on advance luck — or on finding one of the 34 accessible hackneys. Similar squeezes have already made national taxi headlines elsewhere; TaxiFeed has covered how thin WAV cover can get, including Dumfries and Galloway’s tiny accessible fleet and a later WAV-only taxi zone.
Hunt also pointed to national reform. The Government has promised changes to taxi and private hire law; in June 2026 the Commons Transport Committee published Raising the standard, which among other things urges a national plan to grow wheelchair-accessible fleets — including a minimum share of each authority’s licensed vehicles — plus better operator transparency and incentives for drivers. Hunt said the draft Bill text had not yet been published when he spoke.
For Calderdale drivers and operators, the political pressure is clear: hackney policy is already tilting toward WAVs, while private hire accessibility remains almost non-existent on the numbers. Whether more incentives, operator requirements or national rules close that gap will decide how many wheelchair users can actually get a car when they need one.