AFTER a two-year fight for permission to run West Somerset’s first all-electric hackney cab, Alcombe Taxis owner Keith Griffiths this week clocked up 100,000 pollution-free miles in his £35,000 Nissan Leaf cab - and celebrated by buying an identical second vehicle!

"I’m more than pleased with the way things have turned out, despite all the years spent trying to persuade the council that electric cabs are the way forward," he said. "We are still the only taxi firm in West Somerset - and perhaps the whole county - that has gone electric despite government guidelines which are to encourage green vehicles."

Mr Griffiths now runs three electric cars, including a hybrid, and has plans to eventually run an all-electric fleet. He said: "Many customers ask for the green cabs and one local hotel has put our electric taxi service on its brochures."

Mr Griffiths said he was now planning to buy a third electric taxi with a range of up to 200 miles which would allow him to offer a pollution-free service as far as Heathrow.

It was in 2018 that Mr Griffiths, a taxi driver in Minehead for over 25 years, bought his first electric car to offer customers eco-friendly transport, only to be told by the then West Somerset district council that its rules made no provision for licensing electric vehicles.

He was only allowed to use the car for private hire while he pressed the council to sort out what he claimed was a confused jumble of conflicting rules and ’a mountain of red tape’.

Eventually Mr Griffiths received his electric hackney-cab licence by agreeing to go through what he called ’an absolutely crazy process’ which involved buying a retiring cabbie’s car, transferring the hackney carriage licence plate to his own car and giving the original car back to its owner.

"Have you ever heard such nonsense?" Mr Griffiths asked. "Every possible obstruction was put in my way but I refused to give up because I knew that electric vehicles were the future.

"I have had to go through the same ridiculous procedure again by buying a car from a local taxi driver, transferring the hackney carriage plate to my new electric car and handing the vehicle back.

"The current Somerset West and Taunton Council has admitted that the rules surrounding electric taxis are not satisfactory but nothing has been done."

Meanwhile, Mr Griffiths is doing his bit for the environment by using his electric taxis on daily runs taking special needs children from Dulverton to schools in Taunton and Barnstaple.

"I don’t know exactly how much less carbon dioxide is going into the atmosphere by using these green cabs, but surely every little counts," he added.