Taxi Driver Online

WHEELCHAIR CABS CAUSE TRADE RIFT IN CITY TAXI RANKS

HENRY HEPBURN

09:00 - 09 June 2005
Taxi drivers are threatening to take legal action against Aberdeen City Council, amid anger that not all of the trade's vehicles have to be made accessible for wheelchairs.

About 30% of Aberdeen taxis can take wheelchairs, and drivers of these vehicles are unhappy that more is not being done to make others follow suit.

Regulations introduced to Aberdeen in 1994 require new licence-holders to provide wheelchair access.

But licences granted before then are exempt, and it is possible for new taxi drivers to hire licences that are exempt. About 25% of licences in Aberdeen are hired out.

Drivers with wheelchair access are frustrated that their vehicles are more expensive to buy and run - the least expensive wheelchair-accessible vehicle, a Fiat Doblo, is usually priced at more than £15,500.

They have formed the formation of the Wheelchair Accessible Group, which is threatening the city council with court action unless something is done. They want a level playing field for the city's fleet of about 900 taxis.

Successful action could force the council to allow all drivers to revert back to more basic cars, or to make all vehicles wheelchair accessible within a short space of time.

Council licensing solicitor, Donald Macleod said: "If the council lost, there would be a flood of applications."

Officials believe legal action would have a good chance of success, so a special meeting of the licensing committee has been arranged for June 27 to try and avoid the matter being dragged into court.

Mr Macleod said wheelchair access was proving a "thorny issue" but that he was hopeful the meeting would provide a solution to keep all parties happy.

Letters have been sent out to taxi drivers this week in which the council suggests that one option would be to require all taxis in the city to be wheelchair-accessible within five years, although Aberdeen Taxi Group would favour a more flexible approach.

Mr Macleod said that local authorities had to come up with a policy to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act because plans for the Scottish Executive to bring in national regulations by 2002 had still not materialised.

A Scottish Executive spokesman said that a long-running review of the situation was still ongoing, but he could not say when it would be concluded.

Brian Sinclair, of Aberdeen Taxi Group, said there was confusion in the trade about how the act was being applied.

He said: "The meeting is trying to bring it to a head so that the Wheelchair Action Group and the council can find out how things stand."

Mr Sinclair said he was hopeful that the matter could be resolved at the meeting.


I personaly think it should be 100% wheelchair accessible thus having everyone on a level playing field!
whats your views??

This issue was bound to come to ahead eventually since its an increasing practice only to give new plates only to wheelchair taxis.

If some sort of legal challenge was successful then it could have implications all over the country.

Typical of councils to bumble into things and not think about the consequneces.

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Dundee rocks. Almost.

Well I hope it does.

How can it be right that one drivers has to pay £20-30,000 for a new motor, and another one doing the same job £10-15,000?

I wonder how the courts would view a condition on buses, planes and trains, that state one firm has to pay twice as much for their vehicles than their competitors.

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IDFIMH