City of Wolverhampton Council’s Public Protection service is warning taxi and private hire drivers to check their tyres properly after enforcement officers found a tyre with exposed cords during compliance work in Manchester.
The find came as the council’s Northern Compliance Team worked with police and other licensing colleagues over a busy weekend at the start of Tyre Safety Month, which runs through October.
What officers found
Checks covered several locations, including Manchester Airport and Manchester city centre. At Piccadilly Station, one tyre was found with its cords exposed — a sign of severe wear far beyond simply sitting near the legal tread limit.
The Manchester work formed part of wider Northern Compliance Team activity that also took in Hull and Chorley over the weekend. The council has not published totals for vehicles inspected or how many licensing or enforcement actions followed.
Exposed cords are a serious safety defect. Internal reinforcing material becomes visible only when the tyre is worn or damaged to a dangerous degree. That is a different order of problem from tread that is merely close to the 1.6mm legal minimum required across the central three-quarters of the tread and around the whole circumference on cars and light vans.
Why it matters for high-mileage work
Taxi and private hire vehicles rack up miles far faster than ordinary cars. Long shifts can strip tread between routine inspections, so drivers who only glance at tyres at MOT or licence renewal risk being caught out — or worse, putting passengers on the road on unsafe rubber.
TyreSafe has already flagged exposed-cord finds on licensed vehicles elsewhere this year and urges daily ACT checks — air pressure, condition and tread — before starting work, looking for cuts, bulges, uneven wear and other damage as well as depth.
Cross-border enforcement
The operation also underlines how Wolverhampton’s licensing reach works in practice. The city licenses a large private hire fleet that can work far outside the West Midlands, and its compliance teams regularly operate nationally.
That pattern is set out in the council’s own taxi compliance strategy, which notes laser tyre-tread readers for the 1.6mm legal minimum and officers based in Greater Manchester and other regions. A recent East Midlands Airport day of action (24 September, reported 2 October) saw 209 vehicles checked with partners including DVSA and police; among the serious defects were tyres below legal tread depth.
Wherever a Wolverhampton-licensed vehicle is working, the issuing authority can still check it — and tyre condition remains a first-line target.
Practical takeaway
Before you start a shift, walk the vehicle: pressure, sidewalls, tread and any cuts or bulges. Do not wait for the next compliance stop or plate renewal. Exposed cords or illegal tread can mean the vehicle coming off the road and a licence headache that costs far more than replacing the tyre early.