...GREEN MEANS GO
MANCHESTER TRADE COMES TOGETHER IN PROTEST: WE WILL BE HEARD!
In stark contrast to the decision of Leeds City Council to put the brakes on implementing a CAZ due to improved air quali- ty, Transport for Greater Manchester has indicated that they will proceed with their CAZ timetable and coor- dinated licensing policy across all the ten Greater Manch- ester boroughs. For nearly three hours on Wednes- day 26 August, in a remarkable display of solidarity several hundred black cabs and PHVs staged a go-slow drive- through demons- tration in Manch- ester city centre highlighting their anger. The caval- cade proceeded down Oxford Street and in front of the offices of Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and his staff. The participants came from all ten boroughs in sup- port of the very strong message: We will be heard! In the main, those who took part remained inside their vehicles and liaised with the police and circulat- ed the convoy –
when it was possi- ble, as Oxford Street was grid- locked for the first hour. Amongst those who recorded the event were BBC local radio and the Manchester Evening News, and our very own NPHTA board member Sham Raja. Also present were several Councillors and other local politicians, includ- ing Conservative mayoral candidate Laura Evans, who made clear her opposition to the current CAZ pro- posals.
CAZ TOTALLY MISJUDGED
Demo organiser Jon Vickerstaff, chair of the Tameside Own- ers and Drivers Association, told PHTM that the protest was as much about the council’s lack of consultation with and consideration of the taxi/PHV industry in the region, as it was about the CAZ and licensing policy – although the trade believes the Clean Air policy is mis- judged and should be scrapped or at
least “reviewed”, as has happened in Leeds, Bristol and other cities. “The local authori- ties for the most part have been very helpful,” Jon told us. “The trouble is that the councils said they had to take direction from the Mayor’s office, and the Mayor pushed responsibility back onto the councils. So we’ve not been kept in the picture at all – even though TfGM claims other- wise. “We were promised further meetings with TfGM but they never happened. Absolutely nobody from TfGM engaged with us either before or during the demo, in fact the message was clear: ‘we will not be engaging in further discussions at this stage.’ “We need meetings with the decision makers, in order to comply with the Regulators’ Code: “they must actively engage with those they regulate” (us) but we don’t even know who they are. There is a shortfall of proposed fund- ing for all this Clean Air assistance: they
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asked the Govern- ment for £256 million but only got £74 million – the portion allocated to our industry out of that amount is nowhere
near
enough.” Unite North West coordinator and spokesman for the Greater Manchester Taxi Trade Coalition, Karl Warburton, was very much in atten- dance at the event with Jon. He made it very clear exactly what the Manch- ester
industry
wants: “We want regular and mean- ingful consultation. We want the May- oral promise for a trade working group to be fulfilled. We need our voice to be heard and not ignored.” Karl told PHTM: “Today’s message is clear: the trade will not roll over on CAZ. It has been proven by DEFRA roadside monitors that NO2 levels had registered far below the limit even before the pandem- ic. We challenge the validity of the justi- fication for a CAZ given the readings across these road- side monitoring stations.
“Also, the proposed funding as set out so far for this indus- try is far from being enough, mainly be- cause we are not recognised as part of the public trans- port infrastructure unless it suits the powers that be. “We need at least a 30-40 per cent sub- sidy towards re- placing our vehicles with expensive elec- tric taxis. “The message is loud and clear that we are not worth talking to, so we simply had to show that this is not the case, and we will be heard! “This demonstration is a shot across the bows of those who have chosen to ignore our plight. We’ll have to con- tinue to demon- strate until we are given a voice – and that means before the October consul- tation.” NPHTA Board mem- ber Sham Raja was also present at the protest; he attended with members of the Bury private hire trade. He told PHTM: “We were very pleased with the turnout; there were literally hundreds of both taxi and PHVs
taking part. “I do believe the protest was suc- cessful. Certainly the media got the message – that the trade across Greater Manchester is totally against not just the CAZ plans, but also much of the wider changes being im- plemented within the rest of the new proposed generic conditions across the Greater Manch- ester authorities, since the outcome of the communica- tions so far seem to have fallen on deaf ears, creating the usual box ticking version of ‘engage- ment’ that we have become accustomed to. I want to offer our thanks to Laura Evans for support- ing the event.”
And the main thing is that the event net- ted a result: TfGM has promised a meeting within the next week (just out- side our press deadline) with trade representat ives, Mayor Andy Burn- ham and Cllr Andrew Western. As always, we’ll report on further developments on PHTM Facebook and in PHTM October.
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