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Ribble Valley Council proposal for wheelchair-accessible replacement taxis opposed by all consultation respondents
Updated: 8 hours ago
Ribble Valley Borough Council’s Licensing Committee is being asked not to require existing hackney carriages to be replaced with fully wheelchair-accessible vehicles, after every response to a trade consultation opposed the proposal.
A report prepared for the committee’s meeting on Tuesday, 3 November, says the council received 40 responses. One was submitted on behalf of a firm holding five hackney carriage vehicle licences. The council said this represented a response rate slightly below 75% of the 59 hackney carriage driver’s licences issued.
The main concern raised was the higher cost of buying wheelchair-accessible vehicles. All responses referred to the additional expense, with several drivers saying they operated on narrow margins, the report states.
Responses from or on behalf of 27 drivers said there was no evidence of sufficient demand for more wheelchair-accessible vehicles to justify the cost. Thirty warned that a replacement requirement could lead to fewer hackney carriage licence renewals.
The consultation followed an earlier council decision to allow additional hackney carriages, provided they were wheelchair accessible. At the time, the council said four of its 53 licensed vehicles were wheelchair-accessible and eight had extended legroom and assistance passenger (ELAP) seats.
The remaining 39 had no specific provision for passengers with disabilities.
Under the existing approach, new hackney carriages must be fully wheelchair accessible, and there is no cap on the number of those vehicles.
The committee report says there is no evidence of demand from disabled service users for additional provision, while acknowledging that not requiring replacements to be accessible could mean the number of accessible vehicles does not continue to rise.
Drivers also raised other operational concerns during the consultation, including the timing of new taxi ranks, higher fuel costs and competition from out-of-borough vehicles, Uber and other app-based services. The report says signs and road markings for the ranks are being ordered and that a meeting between councillors and the trade is intended in the coming weeks.
The council says fuel costs may warrant further consideration and consultation, noting that drivers did not seek a fare increase during an earlier consultation on the issue.
The committee is recommended to take no action to amend the policy on replacement vehicles.
