HEREFORDSHIRE Council has been left red-faced after accidentally publishing the names of taxi licence applicants which should not have gone public.

Three drivers hoping to be granted a dual licence to drive either a licensed Hackney carriage or private hire vehicle will have their case heard by a council committee today.

Members of the public and press may be barred from the meeting of the regulatory sub-committee as it contains “exempt information” thought to include applicants’ criminal convictions, should they have any.

However, the names of the applicants were briefly made available for the public to view on the council’s website on Monday morning.

When told of the error, committee chairman Cllr Alan Seldon, who would not have been responsible for placing the agenda online, said: “I don’t think that should have gone up there.”

By late morning on Monday, the names had been taken down from the council’s website.

Anyone wishing to drive a licensed Hackney carriage or private hire vehicle in Herefordshire has to have a dual driver licence granted by the council.

The committee will today decide whether the three applicants are “fit and proper” to hold such a licence.

According to the council’s Hackney Carriage and Private Hire licensing policy, all applications that fall outside the authority’s “standard conditions and policy” will be referred to the regulatory or regulatory sub-committee to decide.

Among the details that may be divulged is information about applicants’ Enhanced Disclosure Barring Service (DBS) checks – formerly known as (CRB) Criminal Records Bureau checks.