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RMT announces three 'go-slow' rush hour taxi protests along Leicester's London Road and city centre




The RMT union has announced details of three "go-slow" rush hour protests by taxi drivers along one of Leicester's busiest roads into the city centre.

The union, which represents the city's hackney cab drivers, is opposed to Leicester City Council's plans to impose a misconduct penalty points scheme.

Licensing officers have drawn up a list of misconduct offences and a points value associated with each.

Offences range from illegal parking to driving unsafe vehicles.


The regime would work like driving licences penalties with any cabby accumulating 12 points being brought before a committee of councillors for punishments ranging from an official warning to having their badge revoked.

All the protests will take place between 4pm and 6pm on Friday 13 November, Monday 16 November and Friday 20 November.

The cabbies plan to form a convoy on the city boundary by Oadby Racecourse and drive down London Road, past the train station, past Leicester Mercury Building, along St Matthews Wayand onto Belgrave Gate.

They will then turn onto Charles Street, past City Hall and finish at the traffic Lights near Rainbow and Dove Pub.

The route is just short of four miles.

RMT Union Leicester Branch Secretary Umar Khan said: "Over the last few months we have met with Leicester City Council to address our members concerns, however negotiations have failed.

"The RMT was not officially consulted about the driver penalty points scheme but were only notified.

"We did raise our concerns about the points scheme where we felt certain breaches of conditions should not have been included and some conditions which we were happy with although the council did not take notice of this.

"The council had written to all the taxi drivers in which the overall response was not to introduce the penalty points scheme however the council had totally ignored the response from drivers."

Mr Khan said scheme would penalise drivers for minor infractions by taxi drivers including, he said, forgetting to start their meters or forgetting to wear their badge.

He added: "My members feel that there livelihoods are at risk as the penalty points scheme could potentially have their licenses revoked within several months if drivers collect up to 12 points.

"The main aim of the "Go Slow" is to say no to the penalty points scheme.

Mr Khan said the protests would avoid the Lancaster Road and Infirmary Road areas near the Central fire station and the Leicester Royal Infirmary.

He said: "We do not want to affect emergency services.

"During protest days taxis will still be available for wheelchair bound passengers."

He urged the public to speak out against the proposals.

Mr Khan said he could not be certain how many of the city's 1,900 licensed drivers would take part in the protests.

The council said it hoped the penalty system would improve the standards and behaviour of the city's cabbies.

A city council spokeswoman previously told the Mercury: "The city council has adopted this scheme to provide a more measured approach to dealing with misconduct by taxi drivers and to improve the service offered to the public.

"Drivers will now be warned about unsatisfactory conduct and have the opportunity to improve, before further action is considered.

"The council has consulted with the RMT about this scheme and met with it on a number of occasions.

"As a result, the scheme will be introduced for a trial period of 12 months, with a full review at the end of the trial."


Read more: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/RMT-a ... z3r5gbiWOQ

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

All the protests will take place between 4pm and 6pm on Friday 13 November, Monday 16 November and Friday 20 November.

I hope its not PM on Monday Leicester is gridlocked ENOUGH AS IT IS THAT TIME OF DAY !!! I think I'll persuade one of my other drivers to do the contract

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Taxi drivers to 'go slow' in penalty points protest


Taxi drivers are to drive slowly in single file during rush hour today, in protest against a new penalty points scheme.

The drivers in Leicester who reach 12 penalty points for driving offences as part of the planned scheme, will face a hearing before councillors where they could lose their licence.

Motorists and bus commuters in the city will face delays, although it is not known how many taxi drivers will take part.

The route planned for the single file taxis will begin with drivers gathering along London Road on the outskirts of the city. They will then go up the road towards the city centre, down St Matthews Way, Belgrave Gate, Charles Street and past City Hall, finishing near to the Rainbow and Dove pub.

Diversions for other motorists will be in place, and the protest route will be marshalled.

The city council says they have worked to keep disruption to a minimum.

We are working closely with the police to facilitate a peaceful protest and to try to reduce disruption in the city centre as far as we are able.

We are particularly concerned with reducing any impact this could have on our emergency services, and have asked the drivers’ representatives to put in place some particular measures to ensure this. However it is unfortunately inevitable that there will be some disruption on Friday afternoon and early evening, and people travelling in and out of the city need to bear this in mind when planning their journeys.

– Martin Fletcher, Leicester City Council

source: http://www.itv.com/news/central/2015-11 ... ester-rmt/

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Oh good not the streets around the Uni except the A6 might not be so bad

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Just out of interest how many councils are left that DON'T have a points system leicester must be one of the last

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

we don't

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

OK so that's one are there any others ?

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

We don't either.

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Chris The Fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdlyi5mc ... re=related

No points system in Donny either.

OK so that is 3 out of over 200 not exactly a lot really

This has crept in nationwide with very little protest or debate. Is it not time that parliament took a closer look at this as it is effectively a national system brought in without national government sanction ? Or do the rest of you think it is a good system because my experience is that our council tends to only punish the honest the rest get away with it because they manage to keep it all hidden

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

we don't,
life of Brian , what have the romans done for us

Their amateurs jam the gaff up without warning that doubles the disruption that said i wish them well good to see Drivers organised if not yet MILITANT

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All posts by this contributor are made in a strictly personal capacity

I AM PROUD TO BE A CITIZEN NOBODY'S SUBJECT http://www.republic.org.u

F88K EM ALL WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

BOOZE BOOZE BOOZE

RMT Leicester taxi protest to go ahead tomorrow


RMT Leicester taxi protest to go ahead tomorrow as Mayor point blank refuses to move on penalty points scheme.


A “go slow” protest by Leicester drivers, fighting an aggressive and punitive penalty point scheme scapegoating their industry, will go ahead tomorrow evening rush hour – Friday 20th November – after the City Mayor refused point blank to listen to union concerns and to make any modifications to the plans

RMT has listened to concerns from the ambulance and emergency services and has agreed to alter the route of the protest accordingly.

The union has said that here are already pre-existing sanctions in place for taxi drivers if they misbehave or commit any offence. Drivers who break the law are investigated by the Council’s Licensing team and if there is a case to answer, are brought in front of the Licensing Committee - so the necessity for a further tier of bureaucratic intervention in the trade is unclear.

But the Mayor, Peter Sousby, supported by politicians at Leicester Council has upped the ante and has decided to take and aggressive stance in a macho attempt to be seen to be taking action to regulate the sector. That action will menace and financially penalise responsible and established taxi drivers and will have the adverse effect of encouraging the growth of casual, unsafe minicabs.

Taxi drivers in Leicester are already being squeezed by corporate greed – with the operator of Leicester station East Midlands Trains charging drivers annually hundreds of pounds each just to pick up passengers from the station. RMT believes that Councils across the country are also now looking at new ways of skimming off taxi drivers’ tight revenues in a typical display of the new local government funding model.

Mick Cash, RMT General Secretary said:

“RMT is appalled at the negative and aggressive attitude of the City Mayor who has point-blank refused to listen to reason and as a result tomorrows protest goes ahead.

“RMT is deeply concerned that taxi drivers are being unfairly scapegoated and that new schemes being devised to harass and extract penalties and fees from them. Rather than facilitate a properly functioning public taxi service, authorities are dreaming up new ways to crack down on drivers.

“Leicester taxi drivers are united in their need to take a stand. The “go slow” will be designed to raise awareness of the treatment of taxi drivers and force the Council to think again.”

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

well my driver who did the Leicester uni trip on Monday got back in record time so traffic in Leicester was much better than normal on Monday ! So looks like these protests are having a real effect by improving traffic flow

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

City mayor slams "grossly irresponsible" taxi drivers for holding up ambulances during protest



Taxi drivers have "lost every shred" of public sympathy after holding up ambulances during their go-slow protest last night, Sir Peter Soulsby has claimed.

At about the same time that 87 taxis crept onto Regent Road from Victoria Park at 4.20pm, moving at walking speed down to the Tigers Way junction, a man in the city centre climbed out on to the roof of the Coventry building society near Leicester's Clocktower and threatened to jump.

With ambulances, fire engines and police vehicles towards the city centre the protest route was amended - but some taxi drivers apparently refused to be diverted.

That meant some emergency service vehicles got caught up in the traffic chaos, the city mayor said.

Sir Peter added: "There was a significant incident in the city centre, which led to the need for the route of the taxi protest to be changed.

"Although some have been co-operative some have been grossly irresponsible.

"Some emergency service vehicles have not been able to get through - they have held up ambulances, in particular.

"I think that if anyone had any positive feeling for the taxi protest they've blown it now.

"They've lost every shred of sympathy in the last two Fridays."

The column of taxis came to a halt in Welford Road while taxi drivers apparently asked to change the end of the route so their protest would have more of an impact.

A spokesman for Area Traffic Control said: "The traffic was horrific.

"Everything was at a standstill and it's been a problem getting ambulances through."

The go-slow protest had been designed to persuade the city council to drop a new penalty point scheme that would see them lose their taxi licences if they committed too many offences such as parking illegally.

Speaking ahead of the protest, Umar Khan, Leicestershire and Rutland RMT branch secretary, said: "The livelihood of our members is at risk.

"Leicester City Council can penalise drivers under the current legislation and this points system just allows them to give out penalty points for minor things like breaking parking restrictions.

"But there are only 60 taxi rank spaces in Leicester and 325 Hackney cabs.

"Some things will be worth four or five penalty point so drivers can soon find themselves losing their licences."

The Mercury has contacted Mr Khan about the change of route - but has so far not received a response.


Read more: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/City- ... z3s7N3E6VG

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin