GREEN MEANS GO
UBER TO PAY FOR CHARGING POINTS AROUND REDBRIDGE AND OTHER LONDON BOROUGHS
Uber has agreed to pay for electric car charging points around Redbridge in a secret deal with the council. According to the East London Guardian, on January 13, Redbridge Council leaders met in private and voted to sign an agreement with the private hire company. Other than exposure for the Uber brand, it is unclear what return the company expects from its investment, which will total £5 million across all
London boroughs that have accepted its deal. The council will also sign a ten-year contract with an as-yet undecided company to install the new charging points being paid for by Uber. A Redbridge Council spokesperson said: “The council, like some other London boroughs, has agreed to accept the funding, which will go a long way in helping to fund the provision of much-needed electric vehicle charge
points in locations across the borough. “Rather than looking for a return on the investment, this project is about encouraging drivers to switch to electric vehicles and it is known that accessing reliable charging points remains to be one of their key concerns.” The council has not responded to questions about the locations of the charging points or whether they will be free to use.
WEST SOMERSET’S FIRST ALL ELECTRIC HACKNEY CLOCKS UP £100,000 POLLUTION FREE MILES
After a two-year fight for permission to run West Somerset’s first all-electric hackney cab, Alcombe Taxis owner Keith Griffiths this week clocked up 100,000 pollution-free miles in his £35,000 Nissan Leaf cab - and cele- brated by buying an identical second vehicle! “I’m more than pleased with the way things have turned out, despite all the years spent trying to persuade the council that electric cabs are the way forward,” he said. “We are still the only taxi firm in West Somerset - and perhaps the whole county - that has gone electric despite government guidelines which are to encourage green vehicles.” West Somerset Free Press reports that Mr Griffiths has plans to eventually run an all-electric fleet. He said: “Many customers ask for the green cabs and one local hotel has put our electric taxi service on its brochures.” Mr Griffiths said he was now planning to buy a third electric taxi with a range of up to 200 miles which would allow him to offer a pollution-free service as far as Heathrow. It was in 2018 that Mr Griffiths, a taxi driver in Minehead for over 25 years,
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“Have you ever heard such nonsense?” Mr Griffiths asked. “Every possible obstruction was put in my way but I refused to give up because I knew that electric vehicles were the future. “I have had to go through the same ridiculous procedure
bought his first electric car to offer customers eco-friendly transport, only to be told by the then West Somerset district council that its rules made no provision for licensing electric vehicles. He was only allowed to use the car for private hire while he pressed the council to sort out what he claimed was a confused jumble of conflicting rules and ‘a mountain of red tape’. Eventually Mr Griffiths received his electric hackney-cab licence by agree- ing to go through what he called ‘an absolutely crazy process’ which involved buying a retiring cabbie’s car, transferring the hackney carriage licence plate to his own car and giving the original car back to its owner.
again by buying a car from a local taxi driver, transferring the hackney carriage plate to my new electric car and hand- ing the vehicle back. “The current Somerset West and Taunton Council has admitted that the rules surrounding electric taxis are not satisfactory but nothing has been done.” Meanwhile, Mr Griffiths is doing his bit for the environment by using his electric taxis on daily runs taking spe- cial needs children from Dulverton to schools in Taunton and Barnstaple. “I don’t know exactly how much less carbon dioxide is going into the atmos- phere by using these green cabs, but surely every little counts,” he added.
FEBRUARY 2022
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