MOBILITY MATTERS
CHELTENHAM CABBIE FUMING AFTER HAVING TO GET WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE CAB HE DOESN’T WANT
A fuming Cheltenham taxi driver claims a controversial borough council policy has left him with a cab he doesn’t want or need. And he is so angry about it that he’s threatening to take the authority to court. GloucestershireLive reports that Malcolm Rogers said he did as the council said he and other hackney carriage drivers had to, when he bought a wheelchair accessible taxi a year ago. After doing the job in the town for 30 years, he didn’t want to change from a normal saloon car but was told he had to if he wanted to continue working on the council’s ranks. But after getting into debt when buying a wheelchair accessible vehicle for £15,000, Mr Rogers found that the council changed its mind and scrapped the deadline for drivers to get such a car. He said he had found in the past year that the new vehicle had been a hindrance rather than a help for him. Not a single wheelchair user came to him for a ride and elderly customers complained that the higher level of his new car made it hard for them to get in. It also aggravated a back problem he has because he had to sit upright more than he used to. He said an example of the disadvan- tage of the vehicle came recently when he had been waiting at the front of the rank for ages for a customer. But when one finally came, it was an elderly woman and because she couldn’t easily get into his car, she went to the taxi
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behind him instead. He said: “I’ve written to the council, asking them if I could go back to a normal car and they won’t let me.” He said drivers like him, who complied with the council’s requirement, were now stuck with a vehicle they didn’t want and were financially out of pocket.
He added: “The council then let saloon drivers buy new cars but wheelchair car drivers cannot buy saloon cars. I believe this is unfair, illogical and a punishment for the drivers who obeyed the council.” Mr Rogers said he felt the council had failed to treat him equally, fairly and with dignity, as it was required to under the Human Rights Act. He said he was one of about 100 drivers considering taking legal action, that they had taken advice and had been told they had a good chance of success. Mike Redman, the borough council’s director of environment, said: “In June 2021, the council debated a petition
organised by the Cheltenham Taxi Drivers’ Association, calling on the council to review the mandatory wheelchair accessible vehicle policy that was due to be implemented by December 2021. “In response to the petition, the council voted unanimously in support of the Cabinet Member for Customer & Regu- latory Services, Councillor Martin Horwood, to continue engagement with the trade and others, on this issue. “The result of this engagement was a decision, in September 2021, to cancel the hard deadline of December 31 2021 for all taxis to be wheelchair accessible. “Councillor Horwood met with Mr Rogers personally to listen to his con- cerns. He recognises the investment Mr Rogers and other drivers have already made in wheelchair accessible vehicles. “The decision taken in September included special arrangements for drivers who have already invested in wheelchair accessible vehicles, to allow them extra time to switch to low carbon vehicles. “The authority will also be doing more to actively promote the use of wheelchair accessible taxis. “We are again reviewing the policy as a whole, to provide further assurance that it meets both our climate change and accessibility ambitions. “However, we do not intend to make any further special provision for those drivers that have already invested in wheelchair accessible vehicles.”
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MARCH 2022
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