Mass protest by Derby taxi drivershttps://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/d ... rs-2441204They are furious at the timescale for new pollution rules which will cost them thousandsFurious taxi drivers held a protest outside Derby City Council tonight over clean air proposals which could see them have to fork out thousands of pounds.
Up to 300 drivers from across the city stood holding placards and banners urging the council to rethink how it plans to cut pollution and give them more time to "go green".
The rally took place just before member of the authority's licencing committee met to discuss some of the biggest changes to Derby's taxis since "horse-drawn carriages".
Image: Derby TelegraphIan Wigley, chairman of DATA (Derby Area Taxi Association), said: "We are outside tonight because of the changes Derby City Council are trying to impose on the taxi trade, it is to do with the clean air zone and getting taxi drivers to buy other vehicles that are supposedly more cleaner to the air.
"We feel the costs mean it is not going to be a reasonable business proposition for the drivers to buy them.
"Hackney Carriage Euro 6 diesel ones are reaching £36,000. A fully electric one is more than £60,000.
"There's not the clientele in Derby to sustain that for the drivers to buy them.
"We want the council to come and talk to us and obviously talk to us about the period of time that's involved in changing over.
"We are being given until January 1, 2020 to commit to new vehicles, some drivers have got financial agreements on older vehicles that will be deemed not clean enough for the city centre.
"The public do not know how it is going to implicate them, if we are buying Hackney vehicles that are £36,000 to £60,000 or private hire cars at £12,000 to £20,000, we are going to have to recover these costs.
"The only way we can do that is by fares going drastically up.
"They need to have taxis in Derby and there won't be that many taxis if these proposals push through at consultation."
Image: Derby TelegraphThe council has won Government funding to invest more than £500,000 on the new taxi fleet.
The meeting is going to discuss changes as the council looks to bring a new fleet to Derby by 2020.
The new strategy sets out vehicle age and emission requirements. All licensed vehicles will have to be ultra-low emission vehicles (ULEV) by 2030.
Under the plans new electric vehicle charging points will be installed at locations around the city, exclusively for Hackney carriages.
Proposals also include carriages having a minimum of six seats as standard and to launch free WIFI in all new taxis.
Javed Ahktar, vice chairman of DATA, said: "If you give a man a fish, he will feed his family for one day, if you give him a net he will feed them forever.
"The council are taking away our net and this is why we are protesting.
"We have no problem with going green, it is just too early for us.
"We need more time to sit down with the council and discuss all the issues so we can make it work for everybody.
"We don't want prices to go up and we don't want jobs to be lost, this is why we need more time to discuss these issues and not have it all put out to consultation tonight."
One of the proposals to be considered by the licensing committee will be whether the city's yellow taxis should go "back to black" after more than 100 taxi drivers signed a petition, which was sent to the authority in December.
Hackney cabs in Derby first became yellow in 2001 following a change of policy by the council to make them more identifiable for customers, including the partially-sighted.
Mr Wigley said: "I think this is a good idea, we have had problems in the past as they start to look untidy.
"So getting a cab that is originally black and to keep it black with just a wrap of Derby on it with yellow bonnet, or yellow back or logo on the door that would be a lot better for the drivers."
Image: Derby Telegraph
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