Getting on their bikes

councillors, disability groups and operators which had taken place in Craigshill, Livingston, where charges had been discussed. He added:“taxi drivers are not overcharging wheelchair users. this different pricing did not come from a taxi firm, it came from a private hire firm.”

taxi hire rules state that drivers can start their meters from the moment of hire, though most don’t and only start from the moment they leave the rank. the meter is stopped when the taxi stops, so the passenger knows what the fare is. The West Lothian Youth Foundation, the charity partner at The Centre, Livingston is gearing up for a 500-mile charity cycle challenge at the mall.

The Pedal the Premiership takes place from October 12 to 14 to raise funds for its Fit4Life project for people aged 16 to 25 which provides life skills to help them enter the workplace, education or training.

The challenge involves coaches from the charity, which promotes the educational and health development of people in the West Lothian community through sport, cycling the distance from their base at Livingston FC to all 11 other Scottish Premiership stadiums - a total of just over 500 miles over three days on exercise bikes on loan courtesy of Xcite.

Sh o p p e r s w i l l b e encouraged to donate to the charity throughout the threeday challenge with money raised going directly to their goal of reaching £10k to fund the eight- week intensive Fit4Life project, which they are over half way there thanks to generous shoppers at previous fundraising events this year in the mall.

Through various sporting activities, classes and events including football coaching sessions, cycling events, health and fitness classes, weight management and cookery classes, Fit4Life will give youngsters various life skills.

Scott Millar, general manager, West Lothian Youth Foundation, said: “We are really looking forward to our cycle challenge, Pedal the Premiership, which is going to be tough, but we have all hands on deck to help us reach our goal of completing 500 miles on the exercise bikes over three days.

“Fo l l owing various previous fundraising events, we have manged to raise just over the half way mark to reaching the £ 10k goal we need to roll the Fit4Life project out, which we are hugely grateful to shoppers for helping us to achieve so far and we hope that once again they will help us to raise more funds.”

Ashley Bisland, deputy centre director at The Centre, added: “This weekend is gearing up to be an exciting one in the mall with the goal of helping our charity partner WLYF to reach their £ 10k target.

“We are confident our shoppers will be on hand to support them all the way as they have done in the past and the management team too who might just hop on a bike and do a few miles themselves to help out.”