Uber Is Licensed in Three of West Kent's Four Boroughs - So Why Do Councils Say They Still Can't Police It?

Short version: Uber can legally operate in three of our four boroughs. Here's what that actually means if you're trying to get home - and exactly where we checked, so you can look for yourself.

What this means in practice: in Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone, Uber is a properly licensed local operator, checked by that council like any other taxi firm. In Sevenoaks, it isn't - which doesn't mean you can't get an Uber there, just that no Sevenoaks officer has vetted it the way they'd vet a local firm. More on why that gap exists below.

Uber Britannia Limited - the company's UK arm - now holds 5-year operator licences with both Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone - both links go straight to that licence's own record page, reference 26/02674/TXOP5 and 26/01012/TXOP5. Tonbridge & Malling granted its own licence separately. Sevenoaks has given Uber nothing.

In practice: Uber didn't arrive everywhere at once - it built up its local licences borough by borough over about a year, starting with Tunbridge Wells. That's worth knowing if you assumed it just switched on across Kent in one go.

Three different committees, three different meetings, one recurring theme: once Uber meets the legal checklist, there's not much a council can do to stop it - and even once it's licensed locally, enforcement still can't keep up with drivers from elsewhere.

We checked the Department for Transport's own figures (table TAXI0104) for how many taxis and private hire cars are licensed in each borough - a public spreadsheet anyone can download and check.

Between 2024 and 2026, the private hire trade grew almost everywhere in West Kent - even in Sevenoaks, which has no Uber licence at all.

The one exception is Tonbridge & Malling. It's the only borough where the trade actually shrank - and it's also the first place that licensed Uber.

That doesn't prove Uber caused the drop. But it's exactly what local drivers there have been complaining about.

Here's the twist that makes this confusing everywhere, not just here. Since a 2015 High Court ruling (Reading Borough Council v Ali), a driver licensed by any council in England can legally pick up passengers anywhere else in the country too.

So Uber having its own licence in Tonbridge doesn't mean only Tonbridge-licensed cars work there. Drivers licensed somewhere else entirely - London, Medway, anywhere - can legally turn up too.

That's exactly why Maidstone's enforcement team struggles to catch Uber drivers, and why Tunbridge Wells saw a wave of "out-of-area" cars. It's a gap in national law, not a local failure - and Parliament's own Transport Committee is reviewing it right now.

What this means for you, in practice: whichever council's name is on a driver's paperwork, that driver could legally have picked you up from anywhere in England. It doesn't tell you they know your area, or that your own council has ever checked them. That's true nationwide - West Kent just notices it more, because three different councils have each made their own call on Uber within a year of each other.