GREEN MEANS GO
PORTSMOUTH COUNCIL REQUESTS MORE FUNDS FOR WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE TAXIS AND PHVS
Senior officials at Portsmouth City Council have written to Government to request that more funding is made available to help drivers of wheelchair accessible taxis and PHVs upgrade their vehicles ahead of the launch of Portsmouth Clean Air Zone (CAZ). The council submitted a full business case for the CAZ in December 2020, including requesting £15,000 per WAV to help all drivers of affected vehicles upgrade to cleaner, greener ones. Unfortunately only £4,000 for WAVs was provided to the council by the gov- ernment’s Joint Air Quality Unit (JAQU). Around 10% of licensed vehicles in Portsmouth are WAVs which face dis-
proportionately high upgrade costs compared to standard taxis. Council engagement officers have received feedback from the trade that those operating larger WAVs cannot afford to replace like for like using the current grants, so are forced to upgrade to smaller WAVs. These are not able to accommodate larger wheelchairs and could have the counter-intuitive effect of increasing the amount of vehicles needed for group bookings, causing higher emissions. Portsmouth City Council’s preferred approach is to receive £15,000 per WAV to upgrade, however, if this is not granted, there are additional plans to
award grants of up to £7,500 for each non-compliant WAV in Portsmouth. This could be achieved by reallocating funding already supplied, but would need to be agreed by JAQU. Cllr Dave Ashmore, Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Environ- ment, said: “We know that taxi drivers and operators in Portsmouth have been hit hard by the pandemic and are facing challenges to their livelihood. We’ve listened to the trade and heard their feedback, so I hope that the gov- ernment listens to our request for more funding to help these vital services in our city and for our very vulnerable and important residents.”
BRADFORD COUNCIL CALLS ON GOVERNMENT FOR CAZ DISCOUNT FOR TAXIS AND PHVS
Bradford Council has appealed to Gov- ernment to cut its congestion charge for non-compliant taxis and PHVs following angry protests by drivers in the city. As it stands, non-compliant taxis and PHVs will have to pay £12.50 a day to enter Bradford’s CAZ next year. The Telegraph and Argus reports that the council has requested the fee be dropped to £7. It follows angry protests by drivers who face a potentially costly switch to more efficient vehicles. Cllr Sarah Ferriby, executive member for Healthy People and Places said the Council wants to “ease the burden on the taxi trade” while bringing down harmful levels of pollution. She said: “We have been mandated by
government to deliver the CAZ to reduce harmful pollution. Whilst doing that we want to ease the burden on the taxi trade who like many businesses need all the support they can get given the huge impact of Covid-19. “The £12.50 charge was set before the pandemic and was in line with the stan- dard daily charges proposed across the country. “However it’s clear to us that the charge needs to be lower. As CAZs roll out across the country, we have seen that other cities have been allowed by Government to have a lower charge so we’re asking for the same concession for Bradford. “We’ve made a strong case to govern-
ment that we need to see that reduc- tion in the charge to non-compliant taxis and PHVs. Our proposal of £7 would include the Government’s own fees which they charge each vehicle. It would make it the lowest daily charge in the UK. “Meanwhile the emphasis remains on supporting businesses to upgrade to cleaner vehicles, which is ideally what we all want to see. “We are clear that daily charges should not be seen as a tax and should be set at a level to encourage vehicle owners to upgrade their vehicles to CAZ standard. At the end of the day it’s not a council decision so we have to wait and see what the Government minister decides.”
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AUGUST 2021
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