Andy Peters
Brighton & Hove Cab Trade Association
info@bhcta.co.uk www.bhcta.co.uk
I COULD THINK OF A FEW HEADLINES THIS MONTH:
‘Council Gives Drivers The Cold Shoulder’ ‘Council Puts Health & Safety Of Drivers At Risk’ ‘Council’s Critical Cold Crisis For Drivers’
So, what is this all about? Well, Brighton & Hove council has now implemented an ‘Engine Idling’ policy in the city and in principle there is nothing wrong with that. That is until we heard that this would also apply to taxis on ranks, and we just happen to be in the winter. Not only that, but at a time when there was an amber alert on how cold it would be. We all know how quickly the temperature can drop when sitting on a rank so as you can imagine the trade was up in arms about this, and quite rightly so!
I was asked to make a comment about this on BBC Radio Sussex, where Cllr Tim Rowkins from the council’s Environment Committee was also invited to comment and I had some very strong points to fire off.
I was pleasantly caught off guard when a pre-recorded statement was made by the councillor stating that: “… a common sense approach would be used…” and “would not apply to sub-zero temperatures..”. In my view with the common-sense approach, it would be presumed if it was very cold it would not apply anyway.
On that basis, I was able to step back from my planned strategy of quoting hyperthermia plus other facts and change tactics to being pleasantly surprised that taxi drivers sitting in cabs on ranks in the cold would be excluded and that such a directive will be given to Environment Officers who would be enforcing the ‘Engine Idling’ policy.
I did however make the point that the council has itself caused more pollution on the seafront road by creating a bottle-neck by introducing a totally unnecessary bike lane when there was already one in place.
So, I thought that would be the end of it, but no. I had a call one morning from a driver who was sitting on a
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central city rank who told me that he had an encounter with an Environment Officer at 6:30am, when it was actually snowing. Naturally the driver was running the engine to keep warm, but was told to turn the engine off. The driver of course refused, and also refused to provide his name and address knowing that if he had to be identified, his badge and vehicle licence number could be obtained from the licensing department. Consequently that driver is now expecting a £40 fine.
I contacted licensing expressing how disappointing this was and where was the quoted common-sense approach as expressed by councillor Tim Rowkins? I was also invited back on the radio for a follow up to this and I strongly made the point that drivers are now looking to boycott that central city rank if persecution continues.
I was also told by other drivers that Environment Officers had been out and about with Licensing Officers (who were doing their normal on the spot checks) telling drivers to switch off their engines. Now, there are of course circumstances where the trade needs to be sensible, because I understand from a Licensing report that some drivers were out of their cars with windows open and engines running. In fact, it’s illegal to have a car running whilst not in attendance, so fair enough if they were spoken to.
But I was also told by another driver who was in his car with his window up, again trying to keep warm, that he was told to turn the engine off. He told me that he played the officer the radio clip from the councillor and it turned out that he was not aware of using the ‘common-sense’ approach in cold weather but stated he would go and speak to his line manager.
It was only a few days later that we were to have a Trade Forum meeting at the town hall so I asked for this to be put on the agenda. This is where things got very
interesting (or rather ludicrous!) because
Licensing then sent an email to the trade prior to that meeting that made things very clear. This is an abbreviated version with the main bone of contention:
“For example, enforcement would not apply to drivers who need their engines on to clear their windscreen, or to taxi drivers who are stationary at a taxi rank with their engines running when temperatures are below zero degrees and have no other means to keep warm.
FEBRUARY 2024 PHTM
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