Taxi Driver Online

Court to rule on cab fight


DISABILITY campaigners meet in Liverpool on Monday to plan their next move in their battle with the city council over its refusal to grant a taxi licence to a new wheelchair-friendly cab.

Earlier this year, the council refused to license the Peugeot E7 taxi, despite pleas from disabled people and a petition signed by more than 300 local cabbies.

Now the High Court has granted wheelchair user Mrs Alma Lunt the right to challenge this ruling through a judicial review test case, expected to take place early in the new year.

Mrs Lunt’s solicitor, John Halford, said: “This is an important test case, but more important is the daily impact Liverpool’s restrictive policy has on the city’s 12,000 wheelchair users.

“If any other minority group in society were singled out in this way and told in effect that they had to put up with unsafe travel by taxi at all, the local authority responsible would be pilloried.

“The council can and should remedy this by allowing the E7 taxi that operates safely in almost every other authority in the country to be used in Liverpool.

“If it does not do so now, then early next year it will need to explain to the High Court why it, uniquely among the local authorities of Merseyside, is entitled to preserve a second class service for its wheelchair-using citizens.”

John Bruce, secretary of the Liverpool Wheelchair Users Group, said: “Across much of the United Kingdom, both the London style cabs and the E7 successfully share the streets together.”

“Hundreds of thousands of pounds have been invested by the city council to make Liverpool more accessible for everyone. It is saddening and shocking that we have to take this action in order to open the eyes of our city leaders.”

The E7 taxi – manufactured jointly by Peugeot and Allied Vehicles – has been declared completely fit for use as a Hackney Cab by all other Merseyside councils and the vast majority of the UK’s 400 local authorities.

Liverpool disability organisations say that though the traditional black cabs, made by LTI, have many innovative designs, they have limited space for wheelchair-users.

Many wheelchair users, and cab drivers trying to help them, also have problems manoeuvring the wheelchairs into a rear-facing position.

Monday’s meeting goes ahead at Liverpool Lifehouse, Summers Road, Brunswick Business Park, at 12.20pm. Tel. 0151 296 7742

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I doubt this will go to court, I fully expect Liverpool to back down. The next stop will be Manchester and so on and so on. My reasoning is two fold, I suspect when leave was given for a judicial review the judge might have informed Liverpool that the applicants had a very strong case and second Liverpool can't afford a ruling whereby the judge tells Liverpool that they should accomodate all disabled users and not just those in wheelchairs but also those who prefer to travel in saloons.

I said long ago that the strategy of Allied vehicles should have been to take those councils in the provinces to court rather than concentrate on London. I'm glad the message has finally got through.

Regards

JD

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Be nice if it did though.

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IDFIMH