Taxi Driver Online

City cabbies to be offered £5k to replace cabs and dodge clean air zone charges

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/m ... s-19805430

Birmingham City Council has pledged to support the hackney carriage and private hire community with grants as it prepares for the launch of the zone on June 1

A new £5,000 grant is being handed out to Birmingham-licensed hackney carriage drivers ahead of the introduction of the Clean Air Zone.

City-based and licensed hackney carriage drivers can now apply for the grant towards the cost of a Euro 4 petrol or Euro 6 diesel taxi, Birmingham City Council announced.

The funds are part of a £15 million grants package which is being used to support Birmingham’s hackney carriage and private hire community to prepare for the launch of the Clean Air Zone on June 1.

The city council is set to charge the most high-polluting vehicles to drive within the A4540 Middleway - but not the Middleway itself.

Last week it emerged licensed taxi drivers hit by the Covid pandemic were set to be offered a one-off £1,000 grant by the city council.

“We recognise that like so many, it has been a difficult year for our hackney carriage drivers and we know that they want to be part of the journey to creating a clean air city," said transport boss Coun Waseem Zaffar.

"This new grant will provide them with more options to upgrade or replace vehicles that would otherwise be subject to the daily charge."

The council said the Government’s vehicle checker tool could be used to find out if a vehicle will be subject to the forthcoming daily charges.

In March 2019, the Government provided Birmingham City Council with a total of £7.75 million of funding to deliver the hackney carriage support grants, including a £2.5 million retrofit fund which will be used to support this new grant option.

The council also received £9 million of funding for private hire drivers to apply for grants to upgrade to Euro 4 petrol/ Euro 6 diesel, a ULEZ or hybrid vehicle.

To be eligible for the grant, hackney carriage drivers must have been licensed by Birmingham City Council since September 10, 2018 and be the registered owner or keeper of a non-compliant vehicle.

Birmingham’s Clean Air Zone will go live on June 1. It will see cars, taxis and LGVs (vans) charged £8 a day, while coaches and HGVs will be charged £50 a day.

For more information, visit the Brum Breathes website.

A couple of years ago I suppose these grants might have looked reasonably generous.

But now? They're really going ahead with this on 1 June??

They should give the £5k as Covid grants and delay the CAZ for a couple of years minimum

Indeed.

£5,000 off a £60,000 motor still leaves drivers to finance more money than most of us invest in three cars.

It's simply not doable in 2021.

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