TAXI drivers have slammed the district council's “crackdown” on illegal minicabs, saying the measures do not go far enough.

The authority announced it would take strong action against rogue drivers back in the summer after the Guardian highlighted fears that a growing number of unlicensed vehicles in the district were putting lives at risk and damaging business for legitimate firms.

But since then council staff have spent just one day carrying out licence checks – and only in Loughton High Road and Epping High Street.

Stephen Wilkins, of Loughton taxi firm Sadlers, said the council was “not doing enough at all”.

He said: “If they want to make a difference they should be doing these checks every night. These people come from outside the area so you have to be out there to catch them.

“It's quite a big problem. You can be driving along and suddenly they'll be a dodgy cab come cut in and nick your work - they take quite a lot of business from us.

“For the customers they never know who's picking them up. Anything could happen to people who get in those cabs.”

Licensed self-employed taxi driver Steffan Fitt said: “Obviously we're concerned about our livelihoods but there's a lot of people getting attacked in these cabs.

“If Epping Council wanted to make an impact they should be on the streets every Friday and Saturday night – that's when the problem is worse. It's no use doing these checks every now and then on the odd afternoon.

“There's a lot of cabbies out there who haven't even got driving licenses, let alone cab licenses.”

A council spokeswoman said: "Environment and neighbourhoods officers were out in Loughton High Road, and Epping High Street on October 2, stopping and checking taxis and handing out 'Who's driving you home?' advice cards to members of the public.”

The operation did not catch any illegal cab drivers.

The spokeswoman added that further “high visibility operations” are planned in future to combat the problem, and that efforts were on-going.