ROUND THE COUNCILS NEWCASTLE:
BLACK & WHITE TAXI LIVERY APPROVED
Plans to rebrand Newcastle’s black cabs have been approved. Newcastle City Council’s fleet of almost 600 licensed hackney carriages will be required to be all black with distinctive white bonnets. The vehicles will also need to display red council crests on the front doors and have a taxi sign on the roof that is white at the front and red at the rear. The plans will also require private hire vehicles to display a green council number plate and the operator’s details on the back passenger doors. The new measures, part of the council’s new Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy, were approved at a City Council meeting on September 6. Cllr Paula Maines, council cabinet member for a Resilient City, said: “The unique branding will assure passengers that the driver, vehicle and operators have met our very high licensing standards and that they will be transported to their destination safely. “It also supports the work we do with key partners to stop unlicensed drivers illegally plying for trade and preying on vulnerable people – particularly lone women – after a night out.” To support hackney carriage drivers with the new requirements, the council will provide a £100 grant so they can get the white vinyl wrap fitted to the bonnet of their vehicle. To qualify for the payment, the car should have been licensed with the council on or before June 19 this year. The new policy also includes a requirement for any new vehicles to be compliant with the environmental standards of Newcastle and Gateshead’s CAZ.
NORTH YORKSHIRE: PETITION TO REVERSE SINGLE ZONE
A petition has been launched calling on North Yorkshire Council (NYC) to bring back local taxi zones, reversing a policy introduced earlier this year that local drivers have branded a “massive mistake”. Under the old system, each local authority in the county had its own taxi licensing zone, and drivers could only work within that area. County councillors decided that from 1 April North Yorkshire would introduce a single zone for the whole of the county, meaning drivers can now work across the region. The move was in line with “best practice”
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advice from the government, which advocates the policy to “allow economic forces to determine supply levels and generate cost savings for the council”. But Lib Dem Cllr Barbara Brodigan, says the single zone is failing customers and damaging the livelihoods of local drivers. She said: “North Yorkshire is the biggest county in the country, and it has ‘hotspots’ as well as huge rural areas. Drivers from elsewhere are now over-supplying the bigger towns, but leaving rural areas with limited or no access to taxis.” She said local drivers had traditionally serviced the whole area – towns and villages – but are now having a lot of the lucrative town business taken away from them by competitors who have no interest in servicing the rural areas. She added: “Some of these local drivers have invested up to £30,000 in their business and are now having to compete with people from outside the area who don’t even know the area.” One of the people affected is Richard Fieldman, who owns A1 Cars in Ripon. He said: “I’d say every driver here has lost at least 25% of their income because of this policy. It’s destroying people’s livelihoods.” He said the policy change had not just affected drivers, but had also had a detrimental effect on customers too. People and businesses in rural areas are finding it hard to get taxis, and disabled people are being left with fewer options. He added: “The increased costs and reduced incomes are forcing some drivers to sell their more expensive WAVs and buy a cheaper saloon car instead. One guy had two of them and sold them both. It’s making finding a taxi even harder for disabled people.” He said that he believes that NYC has not even followed correct procedures to create the single taxi zone, so any taxis operating outside their ‘home’ zones are technically breaking the law. According to Cllr Brodigan, the decision was flawed from the outset, as councillors didn’t take into account the response to a question asked in a NYC survey prior to the council vote, which asked: “Do you agree or disagree with the proposal for a single zone for North Yorkshire?”. Fifty-two per cent of respondents – a clear majority – disagreed. Mr Fieldman said: “The whole thing is just a mess. Council officers don’t seem to know what’s going on, and drivers aren’t being informed of new changes. “The council is due to review this policy in April to assess how well it’s gone. When they do, I’d urge them to bring back the seven local taxi zones, and reverse this massive mistake.”
OCTOBER 2023 PHTM
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