The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
TAXI PROTEST AT COUNCIL OFFICES
Around 100 hackney carriage drivers from across Peterborough gathered to object to plans for a new mini-cab office near a city centre rank
Around 100 taxi drivers in Peterborough celebrated on Tuesday night after protesting outside the city council’s offices for much of the day over plans for a new private hire cab business.
Angry hackney carriage drivers descended on the council’s offices at Fletton Quays to protest against an application from Gujjar Investments Limited, to set up a minicab office in Westgate, at the site of the former Maplin store, opposite Beales, which had been recommended for approval by planning officers.
But after a dramatic day, which saw dozens of hackney carriages outside the authority’s Sand Martin House offices given parking tickets, councillors on the planning committee voted to turn down the plans.
The proposed new development would be a booking office and waiting area for people booking a private hire vehicle through the Autocab app.
The application had been recommended for approval despite 41 objections being received and the council’s own licensing team highlighting its opposition.
But councilors at the meeting refused the application by majority vote.
The PT also understands that a council officer met hackney carriage drivers outside and gave them an assurance that the parking tickets handed out during the protest would be rescinded.
Among the concerns that had been highlighted was the potential for conflict between hackney carriage and private hire drivers.
Private hire vehicles have to, by law, be pre-booked, while hackney carriage drivers can stop and pick up passengers.
Right outside the proposed office site, there is a hackney carriage taxi rank and concerns were raised about private-hire drivers being allowed to use the site.
Among the other objections raised by the Peterborough Hackney Driver’s Federation, in an open letter published by the Peterborough Telegraph, are the loss of business they would suffer, on top of having to already abandon the rank near the bus station due to competition from A2B’s nearby office, the negative impact to wheelchair users coming out of Queensgate and the impact to Peterborough’s work towards becoming a ‘Gcity.’
Hackney drivers have been encouraged to invest in Greener, very expensive, electric cabs and say that the loss of their business would not encourage others to do the same and the city centre risks being flooded with more minicab offices and in turn, more pollution and anti-social behaviour.
Up to 100 hackney carriage drivers turned up at around 1:30pm, when the meeting was due to start, to make their thoughts known and were all given parking tickets, only for the council to later reverse their decision and cancel the tickets.
Speaking about the effect the new plans would have on disabled passengers, one of the protestors said: “This particular rank is right outside the Queensgate shopping centre, you have disabled people in wheelchairs coming out of there to a well-serviced rank, which has been there for over 30 years, and they jump in a black cab and they go home.
“What’s going to happen when black cabs are banned on that rank is they’ll be coming out, there will be no cars on that rank, they will have to go round in all weathers to another rank to get a cab. Even though there is a minicab office right beside Queensgate, there is no guarantee that there will be a vehicle available for them to jump in and go. So they will be waiting 10-15 minutes and it’s not fair for them.”
Another added: “We have no idea why Peterborough City Council is telling us to invest in Green cars, which is £60,000 a vehicle, and then letting all the minicab firms from the surrounding area come and operate in Peterborough; this is a double standard.
“This is our livelihood, we’ve just been hit by a pandemic for the last 18 months and now the ranks are being taken away from us.”
Cllr Mohammed Jamil
‘The effect... Would have decimated trade for these drivers’ Cllr Mohammed Jamil
joined drivers outside the meeting, and said: “I think that common sense has prevailed today for these hackney cab drivers. There is no need to have so many taxi offices in a city centre, especially such a small city centre like we have in Peterborough.
“The effect of this mini-cab office right opposite an existing hackney carriage rank and just meters from another rank, would have decimated the trade for these drivers.
“If you use modern technology – apps and smart phones – then there is simply no need for you to be in the city centre.
“You can literally be located anywhere, get the message on the app system that a cab is required, then come in, pick up where the cab is needed, and head-off out again – it really is as simple as that. So, I’m very glad that the planning committee saw sense, and I think we got the right result today.”
While they were protesting, a parking officer from Peterborough City Council went round and gave a £70 parking ticket to more than 80 of the taxis that were parked (on double yellow lines) outside the new council offices.
Cllr Jamil added: “My colleague and I, Cllr Shaz Nawaz, are already working on that – its silly that the council felt the need for this gesture which to my mind just causes unnecessary paperwork on behalf of officers and unnecessary stress on behalf of the drivers.
“These are owner-drivers that the city council know have just gone through extremely tough times during Covid-19. It costs these drivers over £67,000 a year just to keep their Hackney carriages on the road, and some of them are genuinely struggling.
“We heard from the Peterborough Hackney Driver’s Federation in the meeting that it is all well and good having the city council declare they want cleaner vehicles, and electric cabs, but they cost a lot of money. How are these drivers supposed to invest in that kind of Green technology, when their livelihood is threatened in this way?
“For a year and a half now, they’ve had such a big loss to their earnings, and to put this on top of them today, well, I thought the actions of our parking enforcement officers was pointless, mindless and, frankly, shameless. These are people who have kept Peterborough going for the past year or more, and this is stress they don’t need – so, yes, we will see what we can do to get these parking tickets rescinded.”