TRANSPORT TRAVAILS
CRITICISM AS CARDIFF AIRPORT AWARDS TAXI CONCESSION ‘IN SECRET’
Cardiff Airport has been criticised for awarding its taxi con- cession “behind closed doors” without Vale of Glamorgan taxi firms being able to bid for the opportunity. Vale MP Alun Cairns has questioned the management of Cardiff Airport over the decision after being contacted by taxi firms outraged that they were not offered the chance to bid for the concession.
The dispute began after airport manage- ment awarded Cardiff taxi firm Flight Link Wales the right to operate from the air- port and provide services to custom- ers who want to book a taxi on arrival. Cardiff Airport man- agement have hit back at Mr Cairns, saying that his in- volvement has con- fused customers who are now under the misapprehension that
they cannot book their own taxis to and from the airport. They also said they were concerned by the implication that they had “not done every- thing by the book”. Mike Moore of A2B Cars told the Barry and District News: “We have spent 15 years supporting the airport, we should have been given the opportunity to bid for the taxi concession. “We don’t know why this firm (Flight Link Wales) have been picked. They might be right for it, but nobody really knows how suit- able they are because there wasn’t a trans- parent bidding pro- cess.
“Every firm should have had an equal opportunity to bid for the concession. The airport management claim that they spoke to local firms before making the decision but no one spoke to
us at A2B.” Alun Cairns wrote to the Welsh govern- ment to ask why the concession was awarded “behind closed doors” to a firm from outside of the Vale. Mr Cairns said he was disappointed by the response which he says took a “very defensive tone” while failing to explain “why they made the deci- sion to award the concession without a proper bidding pro- cess”.
He said: “The airport management may have acted within the letter of the law, but they have not acted in the spirit of trans- parency and fairness that many expect from a taxpayer- owned organisation. “We all want the air- port to succeed and continue to boost the Vale’s economy. What I don’t want to see is the airport denying
local companies a fair opportunity to bid for contracts.” In a response to Mr Cairns, MD of Cardiff Airport Debra Barber clarified that there is no change to taxi ar- rangements, other than the new conces- sion being awarded to Flight Link Wales. She clarified that cus- tomers are not obliged to use Flight Link Wales and can continue to book their company of their choice.
She also clarified that no money had changed hands and everything had “been done by the book”. She went on and asked Mr Cairns to “clarify the situation with his constituents”. She said: “We believe the situation has been
misrepresented.” Mmmm... Obviously the decision taken by Cardiff Airport is a commercial matter, to which we have no
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direct access. Howev- er, it is somewhat confusing to see the airporrt having “award- ed Cardiff taxi firm Flight Link Wales the right to operate from the airport and provide services to customers who want to book a taxi on arrival”, then stating that “there is no change to taxi arrange- ments, other than the new concession being awarded...” and that no money had changed hands.As far as we are aware, a concession at an air- port is an invitation to provide immediate transport, no matter how you slice it, or whether or not the
arrangement was paid for. You only have to glance around the var- ious taxi/private hire concessions at the major airports such as Manchester, Birming- ham and even Heath- row. Surely that con- cession at Cardiff should have come about via a round-table discussion with all the local firms at very least. Sure, regulars can still use their usual firms either when they arrive or by pre-book- ing... but what about visitors to the area? Somehow Flight Link Wales will gain pecu- niary advantage just by being on the doorstep - Ed.
CHARGES AT BIRMINGHAM NEW STREET DELAYED
Cabbies who threat- ened to boycott Birmingham’s New Street station over a £1,000 passenger pick-up charge have seen the scheme delayed.
The Birmingham Mail reports that the levy - designed to encour- age drivers to switch to modern, more envi- ronmentally friendly vehicles - was due to come into force on September 20 to coincide with the sta- tion’s full reopening. But its introduction has been delayed to allow for more talks between Network Rail and the RMT. The station will revert to its original taxi rank charge of 40p per visit per vehicle while negotiations contin- ue. Cabbies pre- viously threatened to
avoid the station unless the road tax- style charge - due to have been imposed on a sliding scale depending on the age and emissions of each vehicle - was dropped.
Network Rail said fees would start at around £400 a year, with £1,000 “at the higher end of the scale”.
RMT general secre- tary Mick Cash said: “We recognise this fight is not over and we still have work to do to consign these proposals to the scrapheap.”
A Network Rail spokesman said: “We are eager to talk con- structively with all interested parties’ representatives in order to reach an amicable solution.”
OCTOBER 2015
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