LONDON

Black cab drivers have blocked Tottenham Court Road in the ninth day of a protest over plans to close the road to cars, lorries and taxis.

Under the £35m West End project, taxis and other general traffic will be stopped from travelling along Tottenham Court Road.

Protesters are arguing against the plans. 

The demonstrations are now in their ninth day with protesters vowing to continue until there is a resolution.

Images from Tottenham Court Road show taxis lining the street for as far as the eye can see.

According to TfL Traffic News, the protests have closed off Tottenham Court Road, Charing Cross Road north of Cambridge Circus and St Giles High Street.

Buses have been diverted due to the demonstration.

Under the plans, only buses and bikes will be allowed between 8am and 7pm, Monday to Saturday, when it is converted from one-way to two-way traffic from March.

Camden council says the changes will improve road safety and air quality and lead to a change in fortunes for an “unloved” street. Drivers who breach the restrictions face a £130 fine.

But the taxi industry, which lost a High Court challenge against the way the draft plans were consulted upon in 2015, fears the move will worsen congestion and increase pollution in surrounding streets.

The council is midway into a two-year project that, by March 2020, will also switch nearby Gower Street to two-way traffic, with segregated cycle lanes along its length. All buses will move from Gower Street/Bloomsbury Street to Tottenham Court Road in March while Alfred Place, which runs parallel, will be closed to create a “linear” park.

Tottenham Court Road’s pavements are also being widened and a piazza has been created between the Tube station and Centre Point, ahead of the delayed opening of Crossrail.

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 BOLTON

A TAXI driver accused of grooming a 15-year-old girl and assaulting his wife has lost his licence.

He allegedly sent a number of Facebook messages to the young girl in an attempt to groom her for sex in 2015 and was arrested following a police investigation.

He was also arrested for an assault on his wife in 2010 but no subsequent action was taken by the Crown Prosecution Service.

The driver, described as a “sexual predator”, wanted to renew his private hire driver’s licence but was turned down by Bolton Council.

He tried to use his children’s disability and his wife’s depression in his defence but this was given limited weight.

The licensing sub-committee considered the application following a series of complaints against him for inappropriate behaviour.

A complaint was received in June claimed that he was abusive towards his wife who was aware he had been “messing about with kids”.

This incident resulted in an argument and the police were called but they let him go.

The complainant further added that the wife did not feel she could report him for domestic violence as he would hit her more.

The man denied the grooming offence even though photos of the 15-year-old girl were found in his phone showing contact had been made ­– although messages had been deleted.

He denied contacting her more than three years ago, but the committee did not find this credible.

He also denied using Facebook altogether, claiming he may have been hacked, even though he had previously indicated that he used Facebook on route with the police to the Bolton Custody Suite.

Police suspect that he deliberately discarded his phone in the bathroom of a private address following arrest but lied by saying he had lost it the day before.

The phone number was checked against documentation from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children and confirmed it was the same number.

The decision not to renew the licence was made at a licensing sub-committee meeting on October 26 which the man, his wife and his solicitor attended.

His wife admitted ringing the police but denied feeling threatened which the sub-committee did not find credible.

The sub-committee also heard verbal evidence from the licensing officer.

It was established that he failed to declare the arrests in three previous declaration forms in accordance with the conditions of his licence.

The meeting, which was chaired by Cllr Madeline Murray, lasted four hours.

Councillors Hilary Fairclough, David Greenhalgh, Susan Haworth and Debbie Newall also attended the meeting.

The sub-committee noted: "Members of the public and in particular, the elderly, infirm and children or vulnerable adults entrust their personal safety and wellbeing to private hire drivers whenever they take a journey. Passengers often travel alone and are vulnerable to inappropriate behaviour.

"The Sub- Committee’s primary duty is of concern for the safety and well-being of the public.

"There is therefore reasonable cause to refuse to renew the private hire driver’s licence."

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LICENCE WARNING: Durham County Council urged tax drivers and operators to ensure they meet licensing requirements

TAXI drivers and operators are being urged to ensure “paperwork” is in place to meet licensing requirements.

It follows a Durham County Council prosecution of a private hire vehicle driver and his boss.

Driver Dean Smith, from Seaham, was using a private hire vehicle to pick up a pupil from a school in Murton.

Although he had a hackney carriage licence, he was not licensed or insured to drive a private hire car.

Checks showed the Seat Toledo he was driving was licensed to taxi operator Michael Crumbie, who later told licensing officers not all of his 15 employees held private hire licences.

Crumbie said he asked Smith to make the pick-up using one of his three private hire vehicles, but confirmed he has since taken steps to ensure the situation is not repeated, encouraging drivers to have licences for both hackney carriage and private hire vehicles.

Smith said he only drove that car, on his day off, at short notice at Crumbie’s request, as other vehicles were being valeted.

Seeing the inspector, he decided not to collect the child.

Crumbie, 47, of James Street, was fined £440 with £244 costs and victim surcharge. Smith, 51, of Windermere Road, was fined £87, with £130 overall costs.

The council said drivers must they have the right licences to comply with insurance requirements.

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BARCELONA

 Ride-hailing companies Uber and Cabify are to suspend their services in Barcelona in response to the regional government’s imposition of limits on how they operate in the city.

The Catalan government ruled that ride-hailing services could only pick up passengers after a 15-minute delay from the time they were booked.

The decision followed mass protests by Barcelona taxi drivers who complained that their business was being undermined and the services did not operate on a level playing field.

Barcelona is Spain’s second-largest city and one of its main tourist destinations. The suspension of the services was announced just a few weeks before it hosts the annual Mobile World Congress, one of the world’s largest meetings of the mobile tech industry.

“The new restrictions approved by the Catalan government leave us with no choice but to suspend UberX while we assess our future in Barcelona,” an Uber spokesman said.

Spain’s Cabify, which has one million users in Barcelona, said in a statement it regretted that the city had “given in to the demands of the taxi sector, seriously hurting citizen’s interests”.

Cabify said the new regulation, which took effect on Thursday, had the specific objective of “the direct expulsion of the Cabify application” from Barcelona and the region Catalonia.

Uber said it remained committed to operating in the long-term in Spanish cities and hoped “to work with the Catalan government and the City Council on fair regulation for all”.

Uber began offering its UberX service last March. The new regulations were imposed under pressure from taxi drivers, who held strikes that blocked roads in Barcelona and remain on strike in the Spanish capital, Madrid.

The drivers in Madrid escalated their protest this week by blocking one of the city’s main arteries. But Uber licences in Spain are granted by local authorities, and so far Madrid authorities have said they would not adopt the same restriction as in Barcelona.

Cabify and Unauto VTC, an association of transport companies in Spain, said Barcelona’s decision to adopt the new regulation could put 3,000 jobs at risk in Barcelona.

Uber declined to say how many drivers work for it in Barcelona.

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