Taxi Driver Online

Taxi firm suddenly stops taking blind and isolated pensioner on weekly outing to cafe

https://www.examiner.co.uk/news/west-yo ... g-14936470

Kirkburton woman believes 'health and safety' is to blame for end of three-minute cab journey


Image: Huddersfield Examiner

A blind and disabled pensioner has been told she can no longer use her local taxi company because of health and safety risks.

Sheila Childs used Fenay Bridge Taxis once a week to take her from her home in Kirkburton to a cafe three minutes away, and back again.

The cafe staff usually call for her return taxi but on Tuesday this week the staff member was told it would be the last time.

Sheila, 70, said the staff member thought Fenay Bridge Taxis could no longer pick her up because of health and safety issues relating to her needing assistance from the taxi driver.

“It is difficult to park on that street so I need assistance."

“I need some help from the driver,” said Sheila.

“My first problem is my balance that I have trouble with. I am also blind but I have a very little bit of sight.

“It is difficult to park on that street so I need assistance to get from wherever the car is to the bread shop.”

Sheila said she has been using Fenay Bridge Taxis every Tuesday for the past four months and she cannot understand why the situation has changed.

“I haven’t been difficult with them,” she said. “It might take a little longer than usual but they have always been very good and very nice. I just don’t know why.”

Sheila is a widow and has lived in Kirkburton all her life.

Her weekly trip to the cafe is particularly important to her as she has become quite isolated.

She said: “I do have a cleaner that comes three days a week – other than that, that’s it.

“My daughter calls every night. She lives in Rochdale. She’s very good. She has found another taxi company for me and explained my situation to them.”

The new taxi company is based in Huddersfield and is charging Sheila double what she was paying before, meaning it now costs her £10 each way.

Sheila, who was a bellringer at All Hallows Church in Kirkburton from the age of eight to 50, lost her sight early in life.

She explained: “I was blind when I was 13. I had TB meningitis and it left me blind and completely paralysed.

“I did physio and so on and so forth and I could slowly walk again.

“I’m not supposed to be able to see at all. They just say the reason I can see is because I am pig-headed.”

The Examiner contacted Fenay Bridge Taxis but they declined to comment.

Predictable lack of sympathy for the taxi firm in the comments:

we have customers who cannot walk from the car to the door and drivers have to help them all the way. At what point does it cease to be help and become a risk to the drivers health with a 12 stone passenger using the driver as a crutch ?

There are organisations around that provide help for such people if one of these could provide volunteers trained to deal with the needs of those who are severely mobility impaired I'm sure a service can be provided but with a volunteer to assist who is properly trained and insured to do such work

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

If anything happens to them while you are escorting them down the path who's to blame?

If you have done your best, then not you.

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IDFIMH

I think it has more to do with the fare than health and safety.

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Grandad,

Why should the driver subsidise her taxi fares? I bet she gets paid handsomly by DWP for her disability.

It's not all about money, doesn't cost much to lose a few minutes a day to help someone. We'll all be old n knackered some day and rely kindness.

Blind and isolated pensioner handed a lifeline after taxi firm refused to take her

https://www.examiner.co.uk/news/west-yo ... e-14981988

Sheila Childs was told she could not use her regular taxi firm for her only social outing of the week



Sheila Childs meets a volunteer from Valleys Volunteer Car Services Image: Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A blind and isolated pensioner, whose regular taxi firm said she could no longer use them for her weekly cafe visits, has been saved by a local charity.

Sheila Childs, 70, was upset and confused when Fenay Bridge Taxis ended their arrangement.

But now the Denby Dale Centre has stepped in to ensure she can still make it to her only social outing of the week.

Sheila has signed up to the charity’s ‘Valleys Volunteer Car Service’, which pairs volunteer drivers with isolated elderly people in the Holme Valley, Colne Valley and HD8 areas.

Sheila, who has lived in Kirkburton all her life, thinks her old taxi firm stopped taking her because she needs some assistance getting to and from the car.

But the Valleys Volunteer Car Service caters to disabled people as well and Sheila’s first journey with them - on Tuesday - appears to have gone well.

Sheila said: “The lady was very nice. She helped me as much as I needed.

“They were pleased to see me at the bread shop.”

The Denby Dale Centre has also pointed Sheila in the direction of some of its other services, including a ‘ring and ride’ program and a ‘luncheon club’ where she could meet new friends over food and games.

Sheila is taking things one step at a time, however.

“Definitely it would be nice to meet people,” she said. “At the moment I’m taking it easy though. I don’t want to do it all at once because if I found it difficult I might not want to continue.”

Sheila, who lost most of her sight at the age of 13 following a bout of meningitis, paid £10 to become a member of the Denby Dale Centre and gain access to all of their services for a year. £10 was the amount Sheila had agreed to pay a new taxi firm to take her on the 3 minute journey to her local cafe.

Paul Jones, Chief Officer of Denby Dale Centre, said: “Our new members tell us that they feel their health improves by 40% and happiness improves by 30%; I do hope we can achieve a similar story for Sheila and I look forward to keeping in touch with her as we continue to provide services for her.

“Our current mission is to recruit new volunteer drivers, who drive their own cars, across the rural areas of Kirklees.”

One such new recruit signed up after reading Sheila’s story in the Examiner.

Geoff Wilson is currently in the process of joining the Valleys Volunteer Car Services and is likely to become one of the drivers helping Sheila to the cafe each week.

Why couldn't the taxi firm arrange for her to meet new friends and provide food and games?



The bas-tards

But Sheila certainly must have been 'isolated' if she wasn't aware these services existed already.

She is the very type of Person the Charity Wheelers should be ferrying around and not the Idle Work shy's that normally latch on to their charitable services instead of paying for a taxi.