Taxi drivers are not happy with Dublin City Council’s plan to start rolling out the pedestrianisation of College Green, and are concerned that it will negatively affect their business.

Dublin taxi driver Damian Tisdall said closing off College Green is “like closing off the M50 for the city centre”.

“It’s the main thoroughfare of the city – the main artery and they want to block it off. So you block its blood and it’s got nowhere to go, what happens? The city dies.”

Parked in the Foster Place taxi rank is taxi driver Christopher Fox, also from Dublin. “They’re breaking the ruling of An Bord Pleanála. An Bord Pleanála said it’s a danger to people,” he said.

“And [Dublin City Council chief executive] Owen Keegan is still doing this. This man, he’s a law unto himself. He doesn’t respect other authorities. That’s his problem. He can carte blanche what he wants to do.”

Despite An Bord Pleanála’s refusal of the plan to pedestrianise the area, the council are testing it out over three dates this Summer. College Green will be pedestrianised between 7am and 7pm this Sunday, July 21st, July 28st, and August 4th.

“There’s one single lane going around there,” said Mr Fox, gesturing to the road passing Trinity College. “The other lane is dedicated to the cyclists. There used to be two lanes and the traffic flowed freely in through that there.” He said traffic no longer flows freely because of the cycle lane “the same size as the bus corridor,” so more road space is needed.

Bus driver Michael Ryan has been with Big Bus Tours for eight years. He doesn’t know where his route will be diverted on Sunday.

“It’s going to cause a lot of problems for us because it’s a main artery to a lot of the main attractions here – Trinity College is one of our stops. This stop here actually serves Trinity College, the Grafton Street area, Book of Kells, and the next stop on just down the end of the road here is Dublin Castle,” said Mr Ryan. “Another vital piece of our tour is now affected.”

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With Edinburgh City Council proposing to  set up a low emission zone (LEZ) in the Scottish capital to improve air quality, the public took to Facebook to discuss the issue.

Tam Maccathie said on the platform: "Seems Edinburgh is heading toward a London type economic plan. Whilst no one can criticise clean air, folk may well find there is a price to be paid in higher charges for everything including food and rent.

"I wonder how many commercial vehicles registered in Edinburgh actually qualified to enter Edinburgh without penalty and how many have special exemption from the penalty. Do the car and van dealerships have a little deal with the government or Council? Most vehicles that don't reach Euro 6, even the ones bought yesterday will be worth peanuts. Very worrying future..... clean but worrying."

While Heather Henderson said: "What about people like myself who have disabilities, who need their cars to get around and have blue badges. I definitely can't afford a new car."

George O'Toole commented: "Absolutely barmy, is Edinburgh now only for the rich."

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Update on Welsh taxi law reform proposals: Expect delays

The main aspects of responses include to its improving public transport consultation shows a resounding no for its proposal to consolidate taxi licensing under a single authority.

The Welsh Government consulted, amongst other matters, on its preferred proposal “to redirect all of the existing taxi and PHV licensing functions away from local authorities and into a national licensing authority”.

There was however a resounding negative response to this proposal with 83% of respondents saying no. 

According to the response report: “Most responses from local authorities disagreed with this proposal. They commented that further clarification is a required on how the JTA would work and felt that insufficient research had been undertaken. Many also commented that such a proposal would mean the potential loss of local knowledge.

“Responses from taxi operators including the Cardiff Hackney Alliance also disagreed with this proposal and commented that local knowledge is important and centralised administration could cause unnecessary delays. However, there was some support for the proposal from the industry”.

Other proposals included:

    99% support for the introduction of national standards which will apply to all taxis and PHVs in Wales

    96% support for the proposal that a local authority be able to revoke or suspend a licence relating to any vehicle operating in its area, even if it did not issue the original licence

    99% agreement with the proposal to create a database or make other arrangements for relevant safeguarding information to be shared

The report’s publication comes in the same week however in which the Welsh Assembly confirmed that there will be a delay until the next Assembly elections in 2021.

    The Assembly said: “we will introduce a public transport Bill in this Assembly term, building on the proposals in the ‘Improving public transport’ White Paper…The White Paper also sought people’s views about a series of proposals to modernise the licensing system for taxis and private hire vehicles to respond to this rapidly changing market. Aspects of those proposals received clear support, but they also produced ideas, from the industry, from trade unions, from local authorities, to go further in addressing the challenges faced by the industry. These further ideas, coupled with developments at a UK level, have led us to conclude that more time should be taken to finalise our approach to taxis and private hire vehicles. Legislation on these aspects of the White Paper will now be brought forward the other side of the next Assembly elections”.

https://www.taxidefencebarristers.co.uk/2019/07/18/update-on-welsh-taxi-law-reform-proposals-expect-delays/