LEZ must be delayed for sake of our taxi trade
ON Thursday, I visited the Scottish Parliament to lobby MSPs for help alongside Glasgow’s hard- pressed and struggling taxi drivers.
I’ve spoken many times in the Glasgow Times about the threat our trade faces with the SNPs looming and rushed Low Emission Zone in Glasgow.
A policy which has now given up on using any scientific basis and instead replaced it with political opportunism and headline grabbing. Come June, the stark reality facing our city is very clear – push ahead with this policy and we’ll lose up to 1000 taxi and private hire drivers in Glasgow.
This cannot be allowed to happen. It is our most vulnerable citizens who will pay the price and our city centre that will suffer.
On Friday, alongside other licensing board colleagues I attended our annual licensing board night- time visits where we go unannounced to some of our city’s night- time venues to see how things are going.
This year’s visits were extremely worrying. We saw first- hand the impact the pandemic has had on the hospitality trade with many venues still struggling to attract business back.
The one issue raised time and again with us that was a cause for this reason ... You guessed it, people are struggling to get transport home.
Ask yourself this question, would you like it if your son or daughter was stuck waiting in the cold at 3am struggling to get home?
That’s what is happening right now in our city, and it will only get worse when the Low Emission Zone comes into place.
The Glasgow SNP leadership is arrogantly pushing ahead despite knowing the consequences, but I have a glimmer of hope that we may be able to secure a delay.
I hope that common sense councillors from across the chamber can unite to say enough is enough. And if they don’t, I urge representatives in the Scottish Parliament to step in.
Edinburgh, Aberdeen and even
Manchester have already announced delays due to the pandemic. So why must Glasgow rush this?
Why can’t we listen to the voices of our cabbies and give them a break. They aren’t against this policy and we all agree we must get to net zero, however, that must be done in a sustainable and safe way.
The Glasgow Conservatives have been consistent on this issue.
I was the first councillor to highlight this issue and to campaign on it. Our taxi trade knows that in me they have a friend and ally in the
City Chambers. The SNP, Labour and Greens have all backed the LEZ but I hope common sense will urgently prevail for the sake of our city’s hardworking drivers.