Taxi scandal: borough with a taxi driver for every 19 residents

Its sandstone villages and mill towns made the Lancashire borough of Rossendale an unlikely candidate for taxi capital of England.

The Labour-run authority is home to 69,800 people. The biggest town, Rawtenstall, has no police station and its shopping centre was demolished in 2013. It has a monthly Clog Market.

In 2007 Rossendale licensed 150 taxi drivers. Last year it licensed 3,756 — far more than any other English council. Next on the list were Manchester (2,329), Liverpool (2,224) and Birmingham (1,338).

In England and Wales last year one person in 1,000 was a taxi driver. In London, there was one black cab driver for every 357 residents. Dizzingly, Rossendale theoretically has a taxi driver for every 19 residents.