A city council has backed a movement to increase the number of female taxi drivers in Nottingham, following a call from the founder of a women-led taxi and private hire drivers alliance.

The Think Pink enterprise was first established in Sri Lanka in 2016 by Mary Storrie, with the aim of training women as tuk tuk drivers to help them generate income, in turn reducing poverty.

Mrs Storrie is the founder and CEO of the Rosie May Foundation charity, which was started in honour of her daughter, Rosie May, who was tragically murdered in 2003.

Following Think Pink’s UK launch in 2022, the programme was introduced in Nottingham as a taxi scheme with DG cars. As part of its mission, the scheme sought to improve the accessibility of taxi and private hire vehicle driving as an empowering career for women.

Supported by Nottingham City Council, the appeal from Mary Storrie outlines the new opportunities for training, mentoring and licencing support to boost the number of women drivers in a male-dominated occupation.

Mrs Storrie said: ‘Women are very under-represented in this industry, just 6% of taxi drivers nationwide are women.

‘It's important that we have more women drivers on the road because other women like to have a woman driver.’

A wider goal of the scheme includes hiring enough female drivers to enable passengers to specifically select a woman driver when booking a car.

There are 20 Think Pink drivers currently operating in Nottingham, with Cllr Audrey Dinnall, the former chairwoman of licencing at Nottingham City Council, telling the BBC that the partnership is ‘absolutely brilliant’ and expressing her pride about the scheme.

Cllr Corall Jenkins, city council portfolio holder for neighbourhood, equalities and safety, reportedly said a ‘step-by-step approach’ will be taken when ensuring badges and car MOTs are acquired, as well as confirming that the council will provide support during the driving process.

She added: ‘Some people feel comfortable in a female taxi, so we want that choice and we want people to feel comfortable and safe in Nottingham, particularly around the night-time economy.’