Gloucestershire taxi drivers holding talks over wheelchair changes
Council leaders in Cheltenham say they will discuss with taxi drivers their concerns over plans.
It's as all hackney carriages will need to be wheelchair accessible from next year.
Cabbies have been calling on Cheltenham Borough Council to delay its planned changes to licensed taxis for two years.
The council agreed in 2018 that all local hackney carriages would have to be wheelchair accessible from January 2022.
But taxi drivers say these changes threaten to put some of them out of business as it costs between £22,000 and £35,000 to buy a wheelchair accessible car.
They also say the pandemic has hindered their opportunity to save up the money needed for the upgrades.
A petition by signed by 793 people calling on the council to delay the implementation of the new policy until 2024 was presented to the council this week.
However, councillors unanimously backed a recommendation to continue with implementing the new policy.
But customer & regulatory services cabinet member Martin Horwood said that his intention is to continue to talk with the public and members of the taxi trade.
Councillor Horwood said he understood the taxi drivers have had a very difficult time since they considered the policy in 2018.
He says he is willing to have genuine discussions with them over the planned changes.
“I understand with no night time economy, no trade from Cheltenham Festival and no shoppers for much of this time they have had a torrid time of it,” he said.
“The starting point for this debate is the fact that only 66 out of 200 hackney cabs are currently wheelchair accessible.
“That compares with all 19,000 London cabs, every cab in Birmingham and the West Midlands, every cab in Reading and almost every cab in Bristol.
“I’m new to this portfolio and I’m absolutely genuine with my offer to engage both with the accessibility forum, disabled people in Cheltenham and members of the taxi trade.
“I want to look at this policy in detail and also think ahead to the inevitable replacement in the future of these vehicles with electric or other low carbon vehicles.”
Taxi driver Ilesh Mugatlal said the trade has really been struggling during the pandemic and a delay to the new policy would really help them.
“A lot of drivers managed to buy second hand wheelchair accessible vehicles and are going to carry on with the trade,” he said.
“But it’s a tough time for us. We thought the council could be more understanding and take into account the times we’ve just been through.
“The pandemic is still there and our trade is being affected by it.
Mr Mugatlal, who is mainly based at Cheltenham Railway Station, said the situation has improved slightly as lockdown restrictions have eased.
But trade is still down compared to before the pandemic.
“If I spend a whole day at the station I can do about five jobs,” he said.
“It’s better than six months ago when we were in total lockdown. We would sit there for up to four or five hours for one job.
“At the moment we can get one trip every one or two hours.”
Prior to the pandemic they would do around 15 trips a day.
“It’s not even half of that at the moment. It’s very worrying,” Mr Mugatlal said.