CLEAN AIR CAMPAIGN CLEAN AIR ZONES…
AKA SHAFT THE LOCAL INDEPENDENT WORKER
The following item has been sent to us by Lee Ward of ALPHA Private Hire Association in Sheffield. Lee has been very active in the trade for many years, and reflects here not only on the Clean Air situation in Sheffield but around the UK. No doubt he will have struck a chord or two with PHTM readers; if that’s the case we’d love to hear from you.
Let’s not beat about the bush on this, and let’s get straight in to the fight shall we?
Sheffield has, based on the national average of homes per vehicle, some 184,000 vehicles that can be driven into the city centre, yet these very vehicles, regardless of age or engine emissions, are exempt from the Clean Air Zone (CAZ) charges.
What will be charged are the buses, HGV’s, vans, hackney carriages and pri- vate hire vehicles.
Why? Oh that’s the big question here: Why?
Lets think - is it because the local elec- tions are due in May and they don’t wish to upset the voters?
Or is it because these five targets are so polluting above the general public’s vehi- cles that Sheffield Council has no choice?
Because in my honest opinion, after the vote has taken place, the council will say that it hasn’t worked charging these few business/vehicle types and the only way now is for them to charge the public, but they can blame the EU for that….eventual- ly.
The authorities have had since 2010 to come up with a strategy to clean the air in the most polluted areas, but they have left it until the eleventh hour and then rushed their proposals. In doing so they have put enormous pressure on the local
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Where does it state that we are no longer allowed to operate our licensed business in authorities that adopted the Act of 1976; or, more pertinent, where does it say that our licence is not a permit to only carry on our business in certain areas without further charge?
If you haven’t guessed yet, I am annoyed, very annoyed that our industry is not only neglected by this Government, but is tar- geted by the authorities that license us, regardless of what colour they fly.
Well, enough is enough: it is time for us to stand and say that we will not take it any- more, we are a united front on this matter and we will show our strength.
trade to act in order to support these requirements.
Some authorities have even used CAZs to introduce new vehicle conditions for the taxi and private hire industry.
Well, I am sorry, but the only reason a local authority can change the vehicle requirements under legislation is for pub- lic safety, not for a clean air policy.
Why should the trade roll over and play dead on this, after all they are not sup- ported locally in relation to drivers from other areas taking their work right from under their noses, are they?
Ironically, they blame the Government for both issues; they can’t do anything regarding cross border hiring, and they can’t do anything regarding Clean Air Zones. Well sorry again, but yes you can, you just chose not to… and why? Because it will cost you some of the precious money that you take from the very licence holders who are asking you for help.
The Local Government (Miscellaneous) Provisions Act 1976 provides for licens- ing our vehicles to operate not only in the authority in which we are licensed but also to travel in or through other authori- ties in the course of business.
Now is the time for us to show that we are a force and one that will fight these ridiculous charges and implementations. We are a trade which is absolutely satu- rated with drivers licensed by authorities such as Wolverhampton and Sefton, to name just a few. In fact we are drowning by having too many drivers on a boat with overheads weighing us down like lead floats attached to that boat we sit in.
And now we have another lump of lead added to our boat, that of a CAZ charge, slowly but surely sinking us into the abyss of debt.
When will this trade, both hackney and private hire, come together to fight these conditions that we suffer from daily? Tmorrow, the day after or the year after?
How long before we find the bailiff at our front door, hoping that any minute now the legislation will change, or the CAZ will be dropped, before we stand there look- ing at that order to take your home and think…
“Damn, I should have done something sooner…!!”
Lee Ward ALPHA Private Hire Association Sheffield
MARCH 2019
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