LONDON U-TURN LPG Cabs

New measures to tackle congestion, reduce toxic emissions, improve air quality and protect health

The Mayor and TfL have unveiled a package of measures to reduce air pollution and congestion in central London, with the aim of protecting Londoners' health and giving them the air quality they deserve.

The package confirms that private hire vehicles will no longer be exempt from the Congestion Charge. This change will help reduce congestion and, combined with the start of the Ultra Low Emission Zone next April, will ensure further action is taken to clean up this fleet.

Following a public consultation that received more than 10,000 responses, the changes to the Congestion Charge include the replacement of the Ultra Low Emission Discount with a new phased Cleaner Vehicle Discount (CVD) that will incentivise only the cleanest vehicles to drive in central London.

"We have to make tough decisions to protect the health and wellbeing of Londoners and tackle harmful emissions from the most polluting vehicles"

In the first phase, only zero emission-capable vehicles will be exempt from the Congestion Charge from 8 April 2019.

The restrictions will tighten further in October 2021 to support the Mayor's ambition for zero-emission road transport by 2050, with only pure electric vehicles qualifying for the discount. The discount will expire in December 2025.

The Mayor has also announced that PHVs that do not meet the CVD standard or are not wheelchair accessible will also be discouraged from driving in central London with the removal of their exemption from the Congestion Charge.
Only the cleanest

The changes affecting PHVs will help tackle congestion and its associated problems, such as poor air quality, and are expected to reduce the number of PHVs circulating in the Congestion Charging Zone by up to 8,000 a day. The proposal was supported by the majority of respondents to the consultation.

Since the start of this year new diesel taxis have been banned from being licensed to operate on London's streets but further measures are required to deliver vital improvements in air quality to protect public health.

Recent analysis by the International Council on Clean Transportation shows that real-world emissions from London taxis are seven times laboratory limits, far exceeding passenger diesel cars.

Taxis are currently responsible for 20% of harmful NOx emissions and by 2020 they will be the biggest source of transport pollution in central London.

The new package of measures being proposed by the Mayor and TfL to tackle taxi emissions and support drivers switching to new zero emission capable taxis includes:

An enhanced delicensing fund, providing up to £10,000 for drivers who trade in their older, dirtier vehicles early

A £2.5 million fund to help drivers of newer Euro 5 taxis to convert to much cleaner LPG fuel

A consultation early next year on a phased reduction in maximum taxi age limits for the dirtiest vehicles from 15 years to 12 years by 2022

These moves will help ensure the Mayor is on track for reducing taxi emissions by 65% in 2025 to protect the health of Londoners.

This work coincides with the delivery of 150 rapid-charge points and generous grants of £7,500 to help taxi drivers to switch to electric as soon as possible. There are now nearly 1,000 zero-emission-capable taxis in the fleet.

The take-up of existing support to delicense dirty diesels has been low, with only around £450,000 of a multimillion pound fund used.

TfL has restructured this funding to make it more attractive, with £18m of payments available for taxi drivers who delicense their vehicles.

Top payments of £10,000 are available to the first 250 applicants, with tiered payment levels available at significantly higher levels than the current scheme.

A limited number of LPG conversion grants will also be available to drivers of Euro 5 taxis to support the shift of those vehicles with the worst NOx emissions to cleaner vehicles. The new delicensing payments and LPG grants will be open to applicants in January 2019.

TfL will consult on proposals to reduce the taxi age limit for the dirtiest vehicles to 12 years by 2022. The 15-year age limit would be strictly mandated in 2019, with a proposed reduction in the age limit each year until a 12 year age limit is reached. The age limit for Euro 6, LPG and ZEC taxis is proposed to remain at 15 years.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: 'Toxic air pollution in London is a major public health crisis that is stunting the lung development of our children and leads to thousands of premature deaths and increases the risk of asthma and dementia.


'We have to make tough decisions to protect the health and wellbeing of Londoners and tackle harmful emissions from the most polluting vehicles.

'We've prioritised cleaning up our bus fleet and the early introduction of the 24-hour Ultra Low Emission Zone in central London. Now we need private hire vehicles and taxis to play their part and help us clean up our filthy air.'

Alex Williams, TfL's Director of City Planning, said: 'Bold action is required to tackle London's public health crisis. The taxi and private hire trades are central to reducing the filthy fumes circulating in our city.

'This package of measures will contribute to fewer vehicles driving where pollution is most concentrated and encourage the switch from diesel to electric.'
Important step

Tanya Braun, Head of Policy and Communications at Living Streets, said: 'Given the exponential growth of private hire vehicles in London, TfL has taken an important step in removing the Congestion Charge exemption for PHVs across the city.'

Dr Jonathan Grigg, Professor of Paediatric Respiratory and Environmental Medicine, Queen Mary University of London, said: 'Unfortunately older black cabs produce very high levels of toxic emissions. It is therefore reasonable that the GLA removes this fleet from London's roads as soon as possible.

'This is an effective way of protecting Londoner's health - especially the health of vulnerable young children.'

Drew Kodjak, Executive Director of the International Council on Clean Transportation, said 'The TRUE initiative has been working closely with London's Mayor's Office to investigate the real world emissions of vehicles driving on London's roads.

'Our analysis has found that the policies that have been put in place to reduce harmful emissions from London's bus fleet have resulted in significant decreases over the past five years.

'Over the same time period emissions from London's black taxi cab fleet have been on the rise. We commend Mayor Khan and his staff for taking action to address harmful emissions from taxi cabs in the city.'

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 BOLTON

A DRIVER who smashed into a taxi and left two women passengers for dead had spent the previous day drinking and taking drugs.

Bolton Crown Court heard that the women suffered multiple serious injuries, with one needing part of her skull removing, after Scott Lomax hurtled through Bradford Street traffic lights at almost twice the speed limit and into the side of the taxi.

The force of the impact sent Kelly Kenny and Danielle Worthington flying though the taxi window into the wet road, with one of them ending up under Lomax's car.

Lomax ran off and was later found at a nearby house — he had continued drinking and had was woken by police after falling asleep.

Bolton Crown Court heard that, immediately prior to the crash, 29-year-old Lomax, who has never passed a driving test, was driving aggressively and erratically in the Ford Focus he owns.

David Lees, prosecuting, told how, just before 3am on November 26 2017, Lomax, who was said to be angry following a row, became involved in a altercation with a woman driver in Bolton.

At one stage he pulled alongside her and was revving his engine at traffic lights then cut in front of her and sped off through another set of red traffic lights at the junction of Bradford Street and St Peter's Way.

Then he turned his vehicle around and was heading back to the same set of traffic lights at up to 55 miles an hour when he smashed into the Peugeot taxi being driven by Sajid Butt.

The right turn traffic light filter was not in Mr Butt's favour.

"But had Mr Lomax been driving at 30mph then there would have been more than enough time for Mr Butt to complete the manoeuvre," said Mr Lees.

Both vehicles were sent spinning, with the Peugeot taxi crashing into a barrier.

None of the three women passengers in the taxi were wearing seat belts.

Mr Butt suffered minor injuries and Chloe Howarth's teeth were damaged, but Ms Kenny and Ms Worthington were so severely injured that a passing motorist, who stopped to help, thought they were dead.

Ms Warburton's skull was so badly fractured that part of it had to be removed and she suffered a fractured spine, shoulder and pelvis as well as nerve damage and lacerations to her kidney and liver. She remained in hospital for 10 weeks and is still suffering from her injuries.

Ms Kenny was placed in an induced coma after suffering a fractured skull, ribs, nose and needed surgery on her back and pelvis as well as a tracheotomy. She was in critical care for three and a half weeks and did not leave hospital for two months.

In court, an impassioned message from her to Lomax was read out (see below).

Lomax, of Richmond Drive, Leigh, who has previous convictions for serious motoring offences, pleaded guilty to two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

In a letter to the court he said: "I feel ashamed and remorseful for my actions. I cannot make any sort of excuse for my actions."

Shirlie Duckworth, defending, added: "No sentence from the court can compensate the victims or repair the damage to their lives. He would have preferred to have died rather than cause the injuries he did."

The maximum sentence for causing serious injury is five years in prison and Judge Richard Gioserano jailed Lomax for 32 months.

He was scathing in his criticism of Lomax, who had been drinking, taken cocaine and had very little sleep before driving aggressively and showing "disregard for the safety of other people."

He added: "The collision which resulted cost two women dearly.

"Whilst you ran away the severity of their injuries became apparent.

"Even if you did not see them lying in the road you did not, for a moment, think about anyone but yourself.

"You chose to vent your anger by driving dangerously deliberately and other people have had to pay the price for that."

Lomax was also banned from applying for a driving licence for six years and four months, after which he will have to take an extended driving test.

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 MERSEYSIDE

THERE are calls for a clampdown on taxi drivers taking drugs while working in our region, after an 80th arrest for the offence in less than 18 months.

It was revealed on Thursday that more and more private hire and taxi drivers are taking drugs after falling into 'hard times, having to work a lot of extra hours.'

Since the Liverpool City Region’s road safety strategy was launched in summer 2017, it was revealed that 80 taxi drivers have been arrested for drug driving.

The information was revealed at a meeting of the combined authority’s transport committee – which covers Liverpool, Knowsley, Wirral, St Helen’s, Sefton and Halton – on Thursday.

At the meeting, a Merseytravel official said some of the hours worked by drivers were 'incredible', and that many took drugs as they saw it the only way to extend working time 'effectively.'

He added: “It’s an outlying cause of casualties, and seems to be a problem specific to the city region.”

Cllr Liam Robinson, chair of the committee, called for tougher measures to be introduced to clampdown on the problem – to make the roads safer for everyone.

He said: “We have got the best taxi drivers anywhere in the country, but there is a small minority doing things that are illegal. It really concerns me how acute and problematic that is.

“If you’re driving a train or a bus, you’re subject to a random testing regime so rigorous that the number of instances and offences is virtually nil. It’s so strong, and that’s for good safety reasons.

“Should we think about having proper random testing regimes, so we can get this stuff out of the profession?

“80 arrests is huge. The danger it presents for other drivers and pedestrians is too high.”

He was told by the Merseytravel officer that steps were being explored alongside the different authorities’ individual licensing authorities.

It follows November, when it was revealed more than 40 taxi and private hire drivers had been arrested for drug driving on Merseyside since the start of the year.

At the time, Merseyside Police issued a stark warning to drivers that taking drugs and driving could result in losing their job, being imprisoned and even them or someone else dying.

Inspector Keith Kellett called it a 'disappointing' trend.

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 DONCASTER

A number of applications made in the last five years for taxi driver licences in Doncaster have been made by people with criminal records for sex offences, violent crime and drug-related offences.

Figures from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) obtained using a Freedom of Information request shows more than one in five requests and secondary checks on taxi/private hire licences was from an individual with a previous criminal conviction.

According to the figures, 1,588 DBS checks were carried out for taxi or private hire licences related to Doncaster between April 2013 and March 2018. Of these, 320 showed previous criminal convictions – almost 23 per cent.

These included 120 checks which flagged previous convictions for violent offences.

The figures also included convictions for drug related offences and 15 sex offences which include indecent exposure towards a female, indecent assault on both males and females, gross indecency and soliciting a woman for prostitution from a motor vehicle.

Doncaster Council said they have ‘stringent policies’ and drivers undergo a DBS check every three years resulting in some results being duplicated.

Anyone wanting to become a driver needs to pass a knowledge test, a medical, a practical driving test and a safeguarding awareness course in place prior to submission of their application. 

At the point of application a DBS check will be carried out and a decision will be made as to whether the applicant is ‘fit and proper’.

Gill Gillies, assistant director of environment, said: “Doncaster Council has stringent taxi licensing policies.

“All taxi licence applicants must produce an enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) certificate and all existing licence holders are required to produce this certificate every three years.

“The figures provided cover a five year period, which does mean a number of the results will be a duplication as drivers will have been checked at least twice during that period.

“An enhanced DBS shows all convictions, including those which are considered to be ‘spent’ due to the number of years which have passed since the date of the conviction.

“I would like to reassure the public that we have a rigorous system in place to determine if a person is considered ‘fit and proper’ to hold a licence. Our over-riding consideration is always the protection of the public to ensure the highest levels of public safety and practice. We refuse inappropriate applications and can suspend and revoke existing drivers when needed.”

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