GREEN MEANS GO…
COVENTRY CABBIES CLASH WITH CITY LEADER AS £60,000 EMISSION CHANGE APPROVED
Coventry’s taxis have been told to clean up their emissions but fears have been raised over the sig- nificant cost to do so. Coventry City Coun- cil’s cabinet was re- commended to ap- prove new emission- based licensing re- quirements for hack- neys and PHVs on August 27. A group of cabbies protested the decision, but were ordered out of the meeting as pub- lic speakers are not permitted.
The measures being introduced will help reduce levels of nitrogen dioxide in the city. From Jan- uary 2020 only vehicles with Euro 4 engines will have licences renewed, and new applicants must all have zero emission capability. All vehicles must have zero emission capacity from 2024. Replacing cars to meet emission re- quirements would cost around £60,000 to £70,000, a coun- cil meeting was told
last year. But Coven- try City Council is only providing fund- ing of £2,591 to the first 60 taxis. According to the Coventry Telegraph, shadow cabinet
LIVERPOOL COUNCIL LAUNCHES PROCESS TO IMPROVE AIR QUALITY
Liverpool Council is planning to get rid of older, dirtier diesel engines in hackney carriages as part of its clean air agenda. According to the Liverpool Echo, the city council current- ly licenses more than 1,400 hackney carriages,
several
hundred of which have been retro-fit- ted with older diesel engines which are cheaper to run but pump out higher levels of NO2. Under its plan, the ‘retro-fitted’
car-
riages would be phased out. If the plan goes ahead, drivers will be given three months to inform the council that they have a retro-fitted
cab.
Those who do will be 44
given a further five- year grace period before the council refuses to license such vehicles. Any driver failing to notify the council could have their licence suspended and any new appli- cations automat- ically refused. Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson, has set up a multi-agen- cy task force which is considering a range of measures to reduce pollutants. As well as phasing out retro-fitting en- gines, the group is looking at plans for more electric vehi- cle charging points, a
campaign to
encourage more people to walk or cycle for shorter journeys and a plan to reduce traffic
congestion. Liverpool City Coun- cil’s Cabinet Mem- ber for Air Quality, Cllr James Noakes, said: “The plans are still at an early stage. Ultimately any decision about improving air quality through removing retro-fitted engines would be taken by the council’s cabi- net. We need to get everyone’s views on this issue so we can make an informed decision. We have writen to all hackney carriage drivers who are licensed in the city and I would urge them to fill in the survey and give us their views.” Hackney carriage drivers had until Sunday September 30 to complete the survey.
member for city ser- vices Cllr Tim Mayer said: “The fact we are only going to be helping the first 60 is incredibly insult- ing. We have over 1,260
registered
licensed drivers. It is not enough. It is a token gesture.” It comes just days after a council com- mittee agreed to increase licence fees for the first time since 2009, with cabbies warning they can’t afford it. Cllr Mayer added: “In light of the fact we have now put their operation costs up and taking some of them off the road, and the council are not properly finding ways to reduce the costs by licensing
Uber, we could see our taxi trade in a difficult situation in the coming months and years. “As a city council we should be support- ing them not putting some of them out of business as they will not be able to meet these requirements. “This is very short- term, almost a headline grabbing response to the pol- lution problem. In no way does it attack the real problem which is particu- lates.”
LEEDS COUNCIL ANNOUNCES NEW CAZ LAUNCH DATE
Leeds City Council has pushed back the Clean Air Charging Zone until at least July 2020 amidst criticism of
the
scheme by Leeds taxi drivers. The Yorkshire Eve- ning Post reports that the scheme was originally planned to go live in January 2020, but the launch was postponed in June due to a ‘gov- ernment delay in delivering digital sys- tems’ required for the zones. Now, the council has confirmed that the zone’s final launch date will be at least July 2020. Councillors were to discuss the progress of the scheme in an executive
board
meeting in mid September, includ-
ing the installation of camera infras- tructure which has already begun. A network of 300 purpose-built ANPR cameras is being installed at over a hundred junctions around the perime- ter of the zone with the work expected to be completed in December. Leeds Council
is
offering loans and financial support to taxi and private hire drivers and will dis- tribute £23 million of funding to help owners, leasehold- ers and operators of affected vehicles with the costs of switching to cleaner models. However it is report- ed that some taxi drivers are being rejected from the
loans as their in- come
fluctuates
over the year. One Leeds driver said: “They have tried to give us sup- port with loans, but no one I know has actually been ap- proved. “Taxi incomes can be up and down, so its hard to meet the criteria for the loans. “What the council should have done is offer help through a scrappage scheme, giving us a sum of money for the old car rather than a loan towards a new one.” Leeds City Council encourages every business that may be affected to con- tact them in order to find out about the help that might be available.
OCTOBER 2019
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