TAXI drivers in Kirklees who transport passengers to Leeds are being hit by thousands of pounds' worth of charges for entering the city’s clean air zone.

The charges are waived for drivers based in Leeds.

Now councillors in the borough have called for a “unified approach” that stops local drivers being penalised as the authority gets set to adopt a new licensing policy for hackney carriages and private hire cars.

Drivers from Kirklees are understood to be setting up a petition, and preparing a deputation, in reaction to the new policy prior to its introduction on April 1, 2020.

Raising the issue of congestion charges at a meeting of Kirklees Council’s Licensing and Safety Committee in Huddersfield Town Hall, Clr Cathy Scott (Lab, Dewsbury East) called for Kirklees drivers to receive the same exemption as their Leeds colleagues.

Currently drivers from outside Leeds face a surcharge of £12.50 per day as they enter the city’s clean air charging zone (CAZ).

Said Cllr Scott: “This is going to impact on a lot of businesses because some of them do up to 7,000 trips a year. That’s going to impact on jobs.”

Leeds is able to reduce the financial burden on its taxi drivers via funding given to the West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA), a group of leading councillors and officers from West Yorkshire councils, plus York, that works on major infrastructure projects.

Clr Scott added: “I’ve received a lot of lobbying in regards to the fairness of it.

“Kirklees didn’t receive that funding. It was actually given to Leeds authority. But if we’re talking about a combined authority surely the word ‘combined’ can be introduced into this negotiation?

“This isn’t only about Leeds. It’s about Wakefield and others.

“It’s a small industry in some cases. If we talk in Kirklees about supporting businesses across the borough it should also be involving taxi drivers.”

Officers with the council said the authority was investigating whether it could access Government funding to assist local drivers.

The proposed new policy includes adopting a revised standard for testing vehicles: upon first licensing and then annually on renewal.

The council is looking to encourage the use of low-emission vehicles, including

electric vehicles and is working with WYCA to install a network of electric charging points.

Drivers have also expressed concern that the policy only accepts applications for vehicles up to six years of age, and that vehicles over 10 years old (but not London-type cabs) will be refused further licences.

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Watford Borough Council will now screen drivers applying for taxi licences to make sure they have not had their licences revoked elsewhere

Anyone wishing to register as a taxi driver in Watford will now be screened against a national register of drivers whose licences have been revoked elsewhere.

In the past it has been possible for a taxi driver to have their licence refused or revoked by one licensing authority – only to pick up a licence from another.

That’s because when drivers failed to declare the situation when making an application to a second authority – it was difficult for the authority to make any checks.

But now the Local Government Association, in partnership with the National Anti-Fraud Network, has launched a national register of all Hackney Carriage and private hire drivers who have previously had a licence refused or taken away.

On Monday Watford Council’s licensing committee agreed to use the register, as part of their application process.

Now if a check on the register reveals a refusal or revocation the council will then be able to make follow-up enquiries with the relevant authority and then determine whether or not to grant the licence.

Information about drivers from Watford will also be added to the system so it is available to other licensing authorities too.

Elected Mayor of Watford Peter Taylor said: “I want everyone who gets into a taxi in our town to know that they are safe.

“This new database allows us to look at a whether a driver’s licence has been revoked or refused from another part of the country.

“If we have concerns, we can refuse them the permission to drive in Watford.

“Taxi drivers provide such an important service to our community and so it’s important that we regulate the trade in a fair and transparent way.”

According to the report to the licensing committee, the national register was drawn up because of the difficulties in cross-referencing information and increasing concerns over ‘cross border’ hiring.

“The concern was that a driver could simply re-apply for a licence in a neighbouring authority and continue to work more or less in the same region (or another region) as if nothing had happened,” it said.

Although a false declaration on an application form is a criminal offence, according to a report, 22 warning letters have been issued to drivers in Watford who had failed to fill in their form correctly since July 2018.

Most of these warnings, says the report,  related to “very old” convictions or non-conviction issues, such as where an arrest was made but no further action taken.

And, it says, the majority have not impacted on a driver’s fitness to hold a licence.

The council consulted on the changes to the licensing policy in February. No written responses were received.

There was, says the report, one verbal mention of support for the change. And one licence holder expressed concerns that the council would rely upon ‘false reports’ against drivers. However it was explained that this is not how the register would work.

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 MERSEYSIDE DRIVER DIES

  A TAXI driver has died three weeks after a crash that also claimed the life of mum-of-two Michelle Jennings.

Michelle, 35, was on her way to work in a taxi at around 5am on Wednesday, February 27.

The crash happened on the East Lancashire Road in Croxteth between the taxi and BMW.

Michelle, the passenger in the taxi, from Fazakerley, passed away in hospital from injuries.

The 51-year-old taxi driver was seriously injured and had been in hospital since the incident.

Police confimed he died yesterday, Wednesday, March 13.

A 26-year-old man from St Helens arrested in connection with this collision was released under investigation and enquiries are on-going.

Officers are urging anyone with information, who witnessed this collision or who has dash-cam footage, to contact @MerPolCC, call 0151 7775747 or 101, quoting reference 19100077634 or @CrimestoppersUK on 0800 555111. 
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Hull taxi bosses have urged cabbie drivers to act like “human beings” and not abandon their customers after a number of worrying reports involving drivers on social media.

In the past week, a number of women have taken to Facebook to post alarming ordeals involving taxi drivers in the city.

Kayleigh-Marie Jopling, a mum-of-two from Hessle, claimed that a taxi driver abandoned her in Spring Bank at 4.30am last Sunday morning.

Just a day prior, Abbie Jones, a University of Hull student, alleged that she and her friends were subjected to foul-mouthed tirades by a cabbie driver.

Both of the women got in vehicles waiting in the taxi rank at Hull Paragon and Magnus Murray, secretary of the Humber Taxi Association, said it is worrying to hear accounts of such behaviour which he feels is becoming more common.

He wants taxi drivers to show more compassion towards passengers, particularly women and young children, if they are missing small amounts off their fare.

Mr Murray said: “What concerns me is that if a young girl is short on a £4 fare because she only has £3 a driver would kick her out. What is he achieving?


“It’s pounds and pennies. Carry on taking them to where they want to go and I just want them to think that they have done a good deed getting people home.

“It is women and young children who are getting kicked out because they haven’t got the fare but these taxi drivers are human beings and they should be getting these people home safe.

“That to me is far more important than arguing over a few quid.”

Mr Murray, who is part of the Humber Taxi Association which was previously known as the Humber Private Hire Association (HPHA), has urged unhappy customers to carry on reporting their experiences to Hull City Council and the individual taxi operators.

“Make an official complaint through the correct procedure,” Mr Murray said. “That makes it formal and we urge people to report it to the licensing officers.

“There are always two sides to a story but if a driver gets pulled in it is on his record and if that type of behaviour reoccurs they can suspend their licence.”

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A GLASGOW taxi company has unveiled a new look for some of its taxis to demonstrate the acts of kindness its staff carry out on a daily basis.

Glasgow Taxi's have shared the new Your City's Friends branding which appears on 30 of the iconic cabs across the city.

The brand is intended to remind people not only the core service provided but of the significant added value and charitable work the company undertakes all year round.

After first being installed around a month ago, more and more vehicles can now be spotted with the slogan on them.

The first driver to drive around sporting one of the new creations, Jim Smith, believes the design is going down well.

The driver of 10 years added: "I think because we do so much for the city, it has been well received.

"We have taken people to the hospital and, to be honest, you often don't take the money. You can see people are in need.

"There is a lot of trust in us."

Fellow driver David Hodgson said: "I love the job, we are a friend to the city. We are a permanent fixture here but we are a necessity.

"Long after everyone else stops for the night, we are always going to be there."

Another driver recalled the time he drove a lady's shopping home for her, after she returned to the supermarket to retrieve a £1 from her trolley. He later returned to pick her up.

Stephen Flynn, Glasgow Taxis Ltd chairman, said: “We’re very proud to reveal Your City’s Friend as the new slogan for Glasgow Taxis Ltd, which perfectly captures the essence of our role in serving Glasgow. Our staff, members and drivers help transport thousands of people safely every day but we do so much more, often unseen or unheard, and always for the betterment of the city."

“For example, in the first couple of months of 2019 we have introduced defibrillators to 15 taxis, one driver helped recover the stolen mobile of a Strictly Come Dancing dancer, another fixed the wheelchair of a conference delegate, and we’ve supported the Beatson Cancer Charity, Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity and Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice too. We’ve a phrase at Glasgow Taxis – “this is what we do” – and these examples and many more are simply all in a day’s work.

“Your City’s Friend is a complementary message to the famous People Make Glasgow slogan, which also features on our 30 cabs, reminding that our staff and drivers are the very heart of Glasgow Taxis.”

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