Taxi Driver Online

New £1.5million fund to help region's taxi drivers

A £1.5million fund for our region's taxi drivers was announced today in an attempt to support the trade, which has been battered by the coronavirus pandemic.

The scheme, the result of a collaboration between the six boroughs of the Liverpool City Region and metro mayor Steve Rotheram, will aim to provide more financial assistance to drivers, many of whom have been unable to access the government's coronavirus income support schemes so far.

It will be split proportionally among Liverpool, Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley, St Helens and Halton.

In a joint statement, metro mayor Rotheram and the leaders of the six local authorities said: “We recognise the hardship experienced by our area’s taxi drivers, who have seen their trade seriously affected by the Coronavirus restrictions.

“As leaders and mayors, we are continuing to press the Government for financial support packages that work for everyone who has seen their livelihood affected by Covid-19 restrictions.

“We know this fund can only make a small contribution but wanted to make this available as a gesture of support for a sector that has been hit hard without adequate Government support.”

The details of how the funding will be issued to taxi drivers are currently being finalised and further information will be available shortly on each local authority website. It is expected that payments will be made before Christmas.

Last week, Liverpool Council announced small grants for all taxi drivers, equivalent to the cost of their annual vehicle licence and badge fee.

_________________
IDFIMH

Can't seeing it helping out that much when you consider there are 1000s of drivers in that area, however it's better than a poke in the eye.

Maybe it could help reducing license fees, or just to buy masks, gloves and hand sanitiser.

_________________
IDFIMH

£100 per driver, if they're lucky.

_________________
Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

it would be more than that plus the government 20 percent

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

According to the DfT stats a couple of years ago there were around 13,500 badges on Merseyside, so £1.5m divided equally per badge is £111.

And that's assuming it's all going to badgeholders, and not proprietors etc - maybe some of it will be divided up per plate.

So if you're a badgeholder driving a settle car then you could get a lot less than £100.

But who knows how it's being divvied up, but even if it's just going to badgeholders then £100 each is the ballpark figure.

Better than nothing, obviously, but in the grand scheme of things...

And makes the government's SEISS grants seem generous, even at 20%. But it was increased to 40% when you weren't looking

The proposal from our Council works out at £23.50 for each licensed vehicle and a similar sum for each driver but this would be on renewal of the license so a driver could have to wait nearly 3 years for the benefit.

_________________
Grandad,

Reading your other post, it seems very similar to ours.

So if someone renewed a badge in March 2020, then their renewal would be March 2023. Then they'd get a three-month extension covering the period April-June *2026*?

Great help that. Or at least that's how I'm reading ours.