A Bath and North East Somerset Council licensed taxi driver who threatened to leave a child with special needs “in the middle of the forest with the wolves” has been stripped of his taxi licence.
According to BristolLive, the driver had been doing school runs for the child, and said that he made the threat in the summer to stop the “agitated” child kicking the doors and windows in the car.
He stopped the car on the journey home from school, opened the child’s car door and said: “Please stop. If you don’t stop, you stay here in the middle of the forest with the wolves.”
As is typical for taxi driver hearings at the council, the case was heard in a private session of the licensing subcommittee, but the minutes of the meeting in November have now been publicly published.
The taxi driver — who has not been named — said that he had been trying to calm an unsafe situation. He said that the child had also kicked her school escort and he thought it would be unsafe to drive while the behaviour continued.
But the special educational needs co-ordinator at the child’s school said that the child — who has “complex emotional needs” — had been “visibly scared” to get in the taxi because the driver had been shouting out of his car window at her.
The driver said he had to raise his voice because the child was far away, but said he did not yell.
The special educational needs co-ordinator added that the child had mentioned several times that she felt the taxi driver was not kind to her.
The driver accepted that he had also threatened to leave the child on a previous occasion when the child had also been “agitated,” but said that the child’s school escort and mother had approved of his actions on that occasion.
But he accepted that the child and her school escort had been upset by the incident in the summer. The child reportedly cried for 10 or 20 seconds after the driver made the threat, and the school escort later made a complaint.
The driver had attended a safeguarding course after the incident, but said he had not understood it all due to a language barrier and did not remember much about the course.
Bath and North East Somerset Council’s licensing subcommittee ruled that the driver “does not have the appropriate judgement of how to deal with children he is responsible for transporting” and stripped him of his taxi driver and private hire licence.
Source: https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/local-news/taxi-driver-left-child-tears-8974127
Public investment in buses and taxis will bring clean air to Greater Manchester more speedily than charging drivers to use the roads, the region’s mayor has said.
The Guardian reports that Andy Burnham laid out proposals on Wednesday 13 December, for a non-charging clean air zone that would lead to an increase in the number of electric buses in the region from 85 to 199 next year; and provide grants to taxis from a £22.5m fund.
The proposals are a contrast to London where charging for non-compliant vehicles was introduced in 2015 by Boris Johnson, then the capital’s mayor.
The ultra-low emission zone (ULEZ) was expanded this year to cover all of Greater London by Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor.
It became the largest CAZ in the world and, while welcomed by many, it was also given as a significant reason why Labour did not win a summer byelection in Johnson’s old seat of Uxbridge.
Clean air charging zones have also been introduced in Bath, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Portsmouth, Sheffield, and Tyneside.
Daily entry charges for non-compliant vehicles range from £7 for taxis in Bradford to £100 for lorries, buses and coaches in Bristol.
The charging zones have brought vocal opposition wherever they have been introduced but supporters say they work, with Bradford this year recording its lowest ever level of air pollution since records began.
Greater Manchester was due to have a charging clean air zone until Burnham, in February 2022, paused its introduction. He said charging was “not morally defensible” and a “pre-pandemic solution for a post-pandemic world”.
Burnham said on Wednesday cleaning up the air people breathe was a priority for Greater Manchester but that charging was not the best way forward.
“By accelerating investment in the Bee Network to create a London-style integrated public transport network, and upgrading GM-licensed taxis, we can improve air quality faster than if we introduced a clean air zone, and without causing hardship to our residents or businesses.”
Greater Manchester’s ten local authorities have been legally directed by central government to bring nitrogen dioxide to within legal limits as soon as possible and by the 2026 at the latest.
Eamonn O’Brien, the Labour leader of Bury council who is the clean air lead for Greater Manchester, said modelling showed that charging would not achieve compliance by 2026.
“There is now a compelling case for what Greater Manchester has set out – a plan that is fairer, cheaper, more affordable and more democratic.”
Details of the non-charging plan will be published this week in a report to be discussed at a committee meeting on Wednesday 20 December.
The details include a £51.2m investment in 64 zero-emission electric buses and upgrades to charging infrastructure at depots.
There would also be a £22.5m “clean taxi fund” providing grants of between £3,770 and £12,560 to help taxis meet a new minimum standard by the end of 2025.
Taxi drivers who already meet the standard would be helped by an £8m electric upgrade fund.
A further £5m would be spent on measures to manage traffic flow on some roads in the centre of Manchester and Salford.
The Greater Manchester combined authority said the new plan would “deliver on government legal direction without putting jobs and livelihoods at risk.
“It is for government to decide the measures that get the green light – Greater Manchester’s preferred investment-led, non-charging plan, or a charging clean air zone.”
A man who killed a taxi driver after he mistakenly followed his sat-nav the wrong way along a road has been spared an immediate jail sentence.
BBC News reports that Perry Johnson passed oncoming traffic on the A505 between Luton and Hitchin, in Hertfordshire, and crashed head-on with Raja Waheed Khan's Toyota Prius.
Both cars were travelling at about 60mph when they collided in 2021.
Johnson, from Sandwich, in Kent, was handed a one-year prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.
The 31-year-old had been convicted of causing death by careless driving at St Albans Crown Court.
Judge Michael Grieve KC said the case highlighted "too much reliance on sat-nav systems".
Mr Khan, a father-of-three aged 46, died at the scene of the crash which took place at about 23:30 BST on 10 September that year.
His passenger was seriously injured and spent a week in hospital, while Johnson and his partner were treated for minor wounds.
The court heard that Johnson turned right from Carter's Lane, formerly known as Wibbly Wobbly Lane, after a night out with his partner and drove at the oncoming traffic.
His sat-nav had indicated a right turn and he failed to notice the no-entry sign.
"It was an over-reliance on a sat-nav. He was in unfamiliar territory," Charles Durrant, mitigating, said.
Mr Durrant said a surveyor had made 12 recommendations to improve safety at the junction the previous year, but only one had been enacted.
But Stefan Weidmann, prosecuting, said Johnson's mistake was either "incompetence or inattention" and added: "There were clear indicators that he was going the wrong way. There were huge road signs."
In a statement read to the court, Mr Khan's widow Rabina, from Luton, said: "I have lost the love of my life. After my husband's death, life has become lonely for me and my girls. My family fell apart."
Johnson was ordered to complete 120 hours of unpaid work and pay £500 costs.
He was banned from driving for two and a half years.
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-67694292.amp
A police dog helped catch a man after a taxi driver was threatened with a "large" knife in Birkenhead.
According to the Wirral Globe, at around 7.30pm on Monday 11 December, it was reported that a man had threatened a member of the public with a knife at the junction of Dock Road and Tower Road, Birkenhead and then walked off.
Officers attended and conducted a search of the area where Police Dog Yoko apprehended a man on Oakdale Road in Seacombe.
A 27-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of attempted robbery, criminal damage and possession of a knife blade in public place.
CCTV and witness enquiries are being carried out, and officers are appealing for anyone with information or witnessed the incident to come forward.
Working with the CPS, Merseyside Police has secured 50 Serious Violence Reduction Orders (SVRO) against high-risk knife crime offenders.
As one of four pilot forces to trial this new court order, we are taking a proactive approach to reduce knife crime and keep communities safe.
A spokesperson for Merseyside Police: "If you have any information on this incident please contact our social media desk on Twitter @MerPolCC or Facebook ‘Merseyside Police Contact Centre’ with any information, with reference 23001257745.
"Alternatively call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. Always call 999 in an emergency."
LEVC, the maker of the London taxi, has revealed an electric eight-seat MPV as the first in a range of new "mobility solutions" it will launch in the coming years.
According to Autocar, it's called the L380 in reference to the Airbus A380, the world's largest airliner.
It has already been confirmed to go on sale in markets outside of China, where it will be built, after it's launched there in 2024, although LEVC refused to tell Autocar whether these will include the UK.
The L380 is based on LEVC's new Space Oriented Architecture (SOA), which was detailed in an event at the firm's Coventry factory in May.
Capable of hosting EVs ranging between 4.86m and 5.95m in length, it's designed to optimise interior space, ease of access, rolling refinement and range - and will underpin a range of large commercial and passenger vehicles separate from the UK-built TX taxi and VN5 van.
Details published by Chinese media suggest the L380 measures 5316mm long, 1998mm wide and 1940mm tall and weighs 2805kg.
Its eight seats are arranged across four rows of two, with the rearmost able to be folded and stowed and the third row able to slide back and forth to boost leg room.
A more luxurious six-seater, no doubt with the requisite equipment and functionality to rival the new Lexus LM, will also be offered.
LEVC will confirm full technical details next year, but early reports suggest the L380 will be offered with the same 268bhp front-mounted motor as the technically related EM90 MPV from sibling brand Volvo and a choice of either a 73kWh or 120kWh battery for a maximum range of 432 miles.
LEVC has confirmed that the SOA platform will underpin EVs with more than 536bhp from a dual-motor, four-wheel-drive powertrain, but it hasn't yet said whether the L380 will offer a choice of outputs.
Source: https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/levc-l380
Ricky Harold, a 20-year veteran of the town’s taxi trade, was parked in a lay-by when his vehicle was struck from behind by a black Audi A2.
Chinese automotive giant Geely has deepened its commitment to the UK electric vehicle market with a £120m cash injection into London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC).
North Tyneside Council is facing a backlash over plans to increase taxi fares by 6.3%.
Nazim Asmal preyed on his victims after nights out in Preston and Darwen, driving them to secluded spots before carrying out horrific sexual assaults.
Newcastle is set to see a surge in pink taxis driven by women as part of a new initiative aimed at improving passenger safety.
An unlicensed taxi driver who picked up two vulnerable women in Aberdare has been ordered to pay nearly £1,500 in fines and costs.
Cleethorpes taxi drivers are breathing a sigh of relief after council enforcement officers cracked down on vehicles illegally parked in designated taxi ranks.
A Barry man has avoided jail after launching a drunken attack on a taxi driver who refused him entry to his vehicle.
Jersey’s taxi service is in crisis, with driver numbers plummeting by more than a quarter since 2014, a new report has revealed.
On Wednesday 27 July, more than 300 vulnerable youngsters were taken on an all-expenses paid trip to Southport.
Taxi drivers in the town will be able to charge passengers more following a decision by the borough council on 31 July.
A taxi driver has been sentenced to a community order after admitting causing the death of a pedestrian by driving at excessive speed.
A joint operation by council, police, and DVSA officials has seen three taxis taken off the road in Oldham due to safety concerns.
Taxi drivers licensed by Mid Sussex could soon be forced to accept card payments, following a surge in complaints about cash-only services.
Two men have avoided immediate jail time after a high-speed race left a taxi driver with serious injuries.
BYD, manufacturer of new energy vehicles and power batteries, has announced a multi-year strategic partnership with Uber, designed to bring 100,000 new BYD EVs onto the Uber platform across key global markets.
Ways of increasing the amount of wheelchair-accessible taxis across the city are set to be explored to make it easier for those who need one to get one.
Cumbrian taxi drivers are fighting back against proposed licensing changes they fear will cripple their livelihoods.
Bolton taxi drivers are urged to sign up for free safeguarding and disability awareness training before the deadline on October 31st, 2024.
A Conwy Council meeting on Monday revealed a critical failing that allowed a taxi driver whose license had been revoked to continue transporting children to school.