Taxi driver ordered to remove 'phallic' cross from dashboard

A taxi boss has hit out after York council officials told one of her drivers – a devout Roman Catholic – to remove a cross from his vehicle’s dashboard. City of York Council told Clair Cook, owner of AnD Taxis, that following a complaint by a 15-year-old schoolboy passenger that the cross was a “fake penis,” officers had taken the view it was “very phallic” and should be removed. But she branded the complaint “ridiculous,” and said she was appalled that anyone could think it was anything other than a religious ornament.

Clair also said she believed that if the driver had been carrying a symbol of any other religious faith, the council would have reacted with more caution and investigated fully before any decision was made to ask for it to be removed. The driver, who does not want to be identified, said he was a Roman Catholic and had bought the cross on holiday in Greece about six years ago. He said he had put it on his dashboard a couple of weeks ago because he was proud of it and of his faith.



Asked what his reaction was when he heard the complaint that it was phallic, he said: “Incredulity. I couldn’t believe that anyone could think it wasn’t a cross. I have taken it off the dashboard as requested, because I do not want to lose my licence, but I do not think this has been handled properly.” Clair said the complaint had been from a boy who was being taken to school in the taxi, who had also complained about the driver’s driving ability.

Colin Rumford, head of Environmental Health and Trading Standards at City of York Council, said: “City of York Council takes any complaints raised by members of the public very seriously. In this case a complaint was received from a child regarding, what they thought, was an inappropriate item in a taxi. Careful consideration is always taken when any complaints. In this instance it appears that the taxi operator was wrongly advised to remove the item and our intervention should have been confined to making them aware of the complaint.”