ROUND THE COUNCILS.. GEDLING: QR CODES TO BOOST PASSENGER SAFETY
QR codes on taxi driver badges are being introduced to boost passenger safety in Gedling. Gedling Eye reports that passengers using cabs in Gedling borough will now be able to easily find out if their taxi driv- er’s licence is genuine and valid following the introduction of new safety measures. QR codes on vehicle plates and drivers badges will make it simple to verify that the cab licence hasn’t expired or been faked. Gedling Borough Council’s new QR code security feature will be rolled out on all future licence applications and renewals. The QR code can be accessed using a smart phone camera. The code will take the user to a secure website that will show them the vehicle and driver details, expiry date of the licence and verify the licence is valid. The council say the QR codes are being introduced as an added security measure, making it easier for licencing officers to check licences are valid, while offering an additional layer of peace of mind for passengers to know the vehicle and driver they are using are correctly licenced. It will also make it more difficult for taxi licences and plates to be counterfeited. Leader of Gedling Borough Council, Cllr John Clarke said: “These new QR codes will allow passengers to be reassured that their drivers are correctly licenced and their vehicles are safe to enter. As more and more people can now use QR codes quickly and easily using their phone cameras, this will improve safety standards and make it easier for our licencing enforcement teams to inspect. He added: “Our drivers have also welcomed this additional security check which they can use to show that their details are up to date and it also makes it more difficult for counter- feit licences to be created.”
REDDITCH: TAXIS AND PHVS TO BE MORE ECO-FRIENDLY
A drive to make taxis and PHVs in Redditch more eco-friend- ly has been launched by the borough council. The Redditch Standard reports that the move is part of a broader agenda to ‘green’ the town in the run-up to the nationwide ban on sales of petrol and diesel cars in 2030, a mere ten years away. Currently hackney carriages and PHVs have age restrictions with no incentive to adopt environmentally friendly vehicles. However at a recent Licencing Committee councillors unan- imously passed a measure to formulate a new policy to encourage greener vehicles. Cllr Anthony Lovell, portfolio holder for Climate Change added: “It has been a challenging year with Covid-19, but the problem of climate change doesn’t go away and that’s why
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it’s important we keep pressing ahead with our vision for carbon neutral Redditch as soon as possible.” Council Leader Cllr Matt Dormer said: “The age of a vehicle isn’t always the best measure and there is a danger that the current policy would start to catch electric and low emission vehicles by mistake. “Cars are already tested on emissions and what we are looking at is, if you have a battery vehicle, how long can you run that vehicle for. We are looking for greater flexibility here to encourage the purchase of green vehicles. “We will be doing everything we can to incentivise people to buy green and to make them more accessible by increasing the number of charging points around the town.”
PORTSMOUTH: VEHICLES COULD BE EMISSION FREE BY 2025
Taxi drivers in Portsmouth could soon be refused a licence if their vehicles are too old. If the new policy is agreed then drivers of hackney cabs or PHVs can get an initial licence of four years. But this would not be extended if the car is then older than eight years old. Currently there is no maximum vehicle age for their re-licensing. According to The News, the move to reduce air pollution would come into force in January 2022. It comes as council- lors are being asked to approve a plan that would see all new licences only handed out to drivers with electric vehicles, from 2025. The city council hopes this will secure £500,000 from government to provide charging points at taxi ranks. One taxi driver who has worked in Portsmouth for more than 40 years, said: “If they could tell us where we could find an affordable EV for January 2025 that would be great. A Nis- san Leaf costs around £30,000, and the electric black cabs - that aren’t even fully electric - are around £60,000. So you’re saying we would have to spend all that money just to wait around for £3 jobs. There’s not the earning potential to make it worthwhile. We are being unfairly penalised.” The council’s environment boss, Cllr Dave Ashmore, said: “It’s a way to see what’s possible and what’s going to be challenging so we can look at what the problems are now. This is something we have been talking with the trade about for a while but now the government is saying the sale of petrol and diesel cars could be banned by 2030 this is some- thing we need to start considering.” Drivers can apply for up to £7,500 from the government’s plugin grant funding to buy new low emission taxis, or up to £3,000 off of the purchase of a new car, which could be licensed as a PHV. It comes as non-compliant taxis – petrol vehicles older than 2006 and diesel cars older than 2015 – are among the vehi- cles that will be required to pay to enter a new CAZ in the city next year. The changes will be considered on Friday, December 4.
DECEMBER 2020
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