LONDON

Major change to taxi fare payments 

We have launched a consultation and, if endorsed, could see contactless payments and other card payment methods accepted across the taxi trade.

Currently only around half of taxi drivers take card payments. The scheme has the backing of the Deputy Mayor for Transport, senior taxi trade representatives and card providers and, subject to the outcome, all parties have agreed to work together to find a payment solution that will work for both drivers and customers.

The current contactless card payment limit is £20, but this will increase to £30 in September 2015 - which would allow passengers to pay for most journeys, with the average taxi fare being £19.50.

The consultation is another step in our continuing efforts, together with trade representatives, to develop the industry and ensure that taxis remain an essential part of life for people living in, working in or visiting London.

Have your say at consultations.tfl.gov.uk/taxis/card-payment by Friday 24 July.
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ROSSENDALE

Cabbies strike threat 'off the table' after decision over taxi licensing rules delayed

Council bosses have delayed a decision over changes to taxi licencing rules.

The decision to extend a consultation over a new taxi licencing policy was made after cabbies threatened strike action and picketed the council offices at Futures Park in Bacup.

Drivers fear that Rossendale council’s revised licensing policy ‘will impact on jobs’ if introduced.

David Lawrie, Rossendale Taxi Association chairman, has welcomed the council’s decision to extend the consultation period. He said: “Since the protest we have been having full and frank discussions with the council and they have left us feeling very positive. We have been pointing out the problems with the current draft policy and they have been listening.

David did however add that if an acceptable compromise was not reached ‘strike action would be back on the table’.

Council leader Alyson Barnes said: “It was a really positive meeting. I am very clear that we as a Council need to we listen to concerns and issues in a positive fashion and see how we can address them.

“We do need to revise our current policies but we have agreed to extend the consultation to give everyone more time to have their say.”


http://www.rossendalefreepress.co.uk/news/local-news/cabbies-strike-threat-off-table-9516118

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ROSSENDALE AGAIN

A taxi driver has been found guilty of a sex attack a teenager from Rossendale.

Azhar Ikhlaq had denied two counts of sexual touching during a journey to Rawtenstall in 2013.

However a jury at Burnley Crown Count found the 38-year-old guilty on both counts following a two-day trial.

He has now been bailed to attend the court on August 3 for sentence. Burnley Crown Court heard Ikhlaq ‘groped’ the victim who was ‘very drunk’ before later being ‘strong and forceful’ in getting him to reciprocate.

Timothy Storrie, prosecuting, said Ikhlaq was responsible for ‘acts of sexual misconduct against a young man’.

He told the court how the teenager was ‘drunk’ at the time but he still knew what Ikhlaq ‘was about’.

He said: “He took a cab at that time to Rawtenstall. The driver who offered him the lift was the defendant.

“During the journey events took an unexpected turn when he began to make a series of unwelcome and surprising sexual overtures towards his passenger.

“He was ‘coming on’ to him. As the drive continued he attempted to engage him in conversations, the nature of which were explicitly sexual and [the teenager] didn’t want any part of such conversations with a stranger he met in a cab.

“But this didn’t prevent the defendant from going further.”

Mr Storrie told the jury that during the journey Ikhlaq ‘reached over and groped him’ and then made the teenager do the same to him.

He said that by the time they got to Rawtenstall [the teenager] devised an excuse to get out.

“He was distressed immediately.”

Mr Storrie told the jury that the teenager later told police how Ikhlaq’s ‘command of English was sufficient to allow him to have a conversation about his topics of choice on the journey’.

The court heard how, following an investigation by police, Mr Ikhlaq, of Albert Street, Burnley, confirmed he was the driver and the teenager was his passenger, but ‘suggested nothing of the sort had occurred’.

Mr Storrie said he told police the teenager was ‘very drunk’ and Ikhlaq ‘denied being able to speak to him in English’. Mr Storrie told the jury there were ‘two diverging accounts of the same journey’.

He said: “[The teenager] said it was an alarming incident. The defendant said nothing happened at all.”

http://www.rossendalefreepress.co.uk/news/taxi-driver-found-guilty-sexually-9514198