Taxi man questions council support

A taxi driver has questioned why Cornwall Council is not paying out financial support to help cabbies when other authorities in other parts of the country are lending a hand.

Mark Averiss, who has been a taxi driver in Falmouth for 13 years, said he asked the council for support after seeing other local councils giving cash to cabbies.

He said: “I contacted the council to see if there was any help available after seeing it happening elsewhere in the country. We were hearing every day about more councils which were providing grants to taxi drivers to help them through this period.”

However Mark says he was told by the council’s licensing department that there were no grants available from the council and advised to apply for the Self Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) or Universal Credit.

However the SEISS only provides financial support based on 80% of net profit and it is also not designed to cover costs such as vehicle maintenance payments and insurance premiums.

Mark said: “We have seen that holiday home owners have been able to claim tens of thousands of pounds in grants - we are working in Cornwall and having to have passengers sitting behind us in the car.

“In other areas taxi drivers have been helped by councils with money to put screens in their vehicles and PPE. We have had nothing.”

Cornwall Council said that it had paid out grants to some taxi drivers and said that they had not been excluded from the additional restrictions grant schemes.

With many taxi drivers working from their own homes they have been unable to apply for previous government grant schemes as they are based on business rates.

However the discretionary grant schemes which are operated by councils should be able to help those who have been unable to access previous schemes.

An taxi industry magazine has listed local councils paying out grants to taxi drivers and listed Cornwall Council in its “named and shamed” section.

Cornwall Council said: “Taxi drivers have not been excluded from the Additional Restrictions Grant schemes and we have paid out grants to taxi drivers who qualified. Working within the limited budget available, we have prioritised businesses in Cornwall who have not been eligible for other forms of financial support but have been forced to close or been severely impacted.”