ROUND THE COUNCILS.. WINCHESTER: COUNCIL UPDATES TAXI POLICY
Winchester City Council is in the process of updating its licensing policy and the draft criteria has been approved. Changes include updated vehicle liveries, stricter rules on wheelchair accessible cabs and age limits of cars. By 2023, all cars will have to be a standard white paint colour, display permanently fixed signs on the front doors and the licence plate will be fixed to the rear of the vehicle. Cllr David McLean said the colour scheme was necessary for safety reasons – if all taxis look the same, residents know exactly which drivers to trust. But John Boardman, a fleet owner for more than 30 years, responded: “I’ve had my vehicle broken into several times. If people see the signs they will think there’s more chance of making a profit they will target that vehicle. “Also, the permanently fixed signs will damage the vehicles and that will cost money to fix when it is sold or no longer used as a taxi.” Another driver suggested taxis could use magnetic signs that can be removed from the car when it is not in use. Licensing officer Claire Humphreys told the meeting: “Around 84 per cent of people who answered our consulta- tion survey agreed that the door signs should be there, and 87 per cent said that taxis should have fixed rear plates. Our main reason and priority for these changes is for the safety of the public.” The city council also wants its taxis to be more accessible for disabled residents. All WAVs will have to feature either rear loading or side loading doors. New drivers will also receive disability awareness training before starting and current drivers will need to pass this before 31 August 2021. To help with its drive to become carbon neutral, the council will closely monitor the age of all taxis. Petrol and diesel vehicles can be licensed as a hackney carriage up to five years old from the date of registration. The current policy allows vehicles up to three years old from the date of regis- tration – this is to bring in line with new private hire vehicles and to encourage older, more polluting vehicles to be replaced sooner at less cost to the driver. It is also proposed that all licensed vehicles must carry a contactless payment device. This is to ensure that vulnerable adults can still get home without the need for cash, which may otherwise encourage them to walk. Cllr Derek Green questioned why taxi drivers were expected to pay for these changes in the middle of a pandemic. David Ingram, service lead for public protection, said: “The policy needed changing and it is only because of lockdown that we are only just talking about it now. The plan is designed to help drivers. Vehicles licensed since 2015 will not need to be changed until 2023. We are just guiding drivers for when they buy new vehicles.” The draft policy was approved, with nine councillors voting for it and one abstaining (Cllr Green). It is set to go before cabinet soon where it will be tweaked into a final draft and signed off.
20 SWINDON: LICENSING CONDITIONS TO BE DISCUSSED
Changes to licensing conditions for Swindon’s taxi drivers were recently discussed at a meeting of Swindon BC’s licensing committee. Last year two proposals were put to the trade for consultation by the council: PH drivers could be licensed to work for more than one operator at a time; a new policy to encourage drivers to license newer vehicles with better emissions standards. There was also a suggestion last year that it should become compulsory for taxis to have CCTV as a safety measure but that was adapted to make the proposal voluntary. However, since the DfT issued draft guidance supporting the idea of local councils making it mandatory for licensed vehicles to have CCTV, members of the committee were asked to approve going back to the idea. At the meeting on 17 September, reports were not ready, so all matters were postponed until a date in early October.
ROTHERHAM: CONCERNS OVER HATE CRIMES TO DRIVERS
Rotherham Coucil has set out plans to protect taxi drivers against hate crime after concerns that they have been tar- geted in the wake of the child sexual exploitation scandal revelations. According to the Sheffield Star, a report to be heard by Rotherham Council’s cabinet on Monday 21 September, sets out what the council has done to protect taxi drivers in the borough. Rotherham’s Youth Council has raised the con- cerns and asked how the council and police were supporting them. The report stated that the council has reviewed their policy, following a public consultation. The council found that taxi drivers “were very clear in rela- tion to experiencing incidents at significant levels and in some cases their families were feeling in danger and experi- encing hate crimes and victimisation as a result of their association with taxi drivers”. The report added that their policy changed in 2015 centred on protecting the public, but now it would be “more focused on protecting individual drivers as well as the public, after listening to feedback from the trade, family groups and another representative groups.” Other plans to protect drivers included potential enhance- ment of cameras in vehicles and, placing a duty on taxi companies that they would have to act in a manner that “did not encourage any discrimination.” It continued: “Taxi drivers were encouraged to report hate crime. One of the requirements of being a taxi driver was to attend safeguarding training, which included hate crime - recognising the signs of hate crime and how to report it but also how to act if you were a victim of hate crime whilst driv- ing the taxi”.
OCTOBER 2020
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