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Too old taxis to face the axe



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Published Date:
13 October 2008
Taxis could be forced off the road by an age restriction on vehicles in Preston.
A ban on all cars more than 10 years old is being considered by licensing bosses at the city council in a bid to improve air quality.

But drivers plan to fight the plans which they say will inflict "financial hardship" on cabbies already hit by rising fuel, insurance and other costs.

The new rules, due to go out to public consultation on Friday, would be phased in between 2009 and 2014.

Vehicles over 15-years-old would be banned from April next year, and the age limit would be reduced by one year every year until 2014.

Mark Selley, secretary of the Preston Hackney Carriage Association, said: "We will fight tooth and nail against such a policy. We feel very strongly that it would force great financial hardship on drivers to make the council's job easier.

"It could render a £10,000 vehicle worth next to nothing. To impose a draconian policy ... it will force a lot of drivers out of business. This is a very emotive issue because drivers' livelihoods are at stake here.

"If they've got issues with quality of vehicles, it's due to the council's enforcement. What the council has to do is make sure owners and drivers are running their vehicles responsibly.

"You will see Hackneys that are 15 years old but are still perfectly reliable because they're purpose-built for the job."

The 10-year ban would affect 39% of Hackney carriages and 22% of private hire vehicles, around 120 vehicles. Only eight vehicles would be 15 years old or more on April 1, 2009.

Ribbleton Taxis boss Mick Rooney, who paid £4,800 for an eight-year-old Mercedes saloon 10 months ago, said cars were already required to have two MOT tests every year.

He said: "You're going to see a mass exodus from this job, then we'll end up with a shortage of taxis. Owner-drivers will disappear because they can no longer afford it so it plays into the hands of the big companies.

"It's not like you can stick the fares up because the trade's dying. You're better off really packing shelves in Morrisions."

Mike Thorpe, head of licensing at Preston Council, said: "We want to improve air quality and taxis are particular culprits of high emissions levels."

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The full article contains 417 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
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  • Last Updated: 13 October 2008 10:42 AM
  • Source: n/a
  • Location: Preston
 
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David C,

13/10/2008 09:51:10
Illegal and unenforcable. Why is Preston hell bent on ridding itself of any history?
2

outdoorboy,

13/10/2008 09:53:37
this is just plain wrong. if the taxi meets emission regs whats the problem regardless fo age. something else going on here i think.
3

equalizer,

13/10/2008 11:06:22
out door boy, oldercars have less stringent emmission tests.. Newer cars are more economical and tighter regulation on emmissions. Some older deisel models pass emmission tests if they dont blind the car behind with smoke when revved. At the same tim you cant just destroy someones livelihood. We would all winge if these people ended up on benefits. And most of us do the trade we do because we cant do much else. Maybe give incentives to drivers of newer cars, or grants to assist the older cars to be replaced. I cant see why the council always seem to punish. why not reward the drivers of newer cars?
4

emjharrison1984,

13/10/2008 13:12:01
well said equalizer! I agree 100%!
5

PAUL123,

preston 13/10/2008 14:46:35
manchester and other cities already have an age retriction on cabs and since preston in now laughinly known as a city why should our taxis,s be different to any were else, driving round in clapped out smoking recks???
6

Eric Cartman,

Preston 13/10/2008 17:42:37
This is a PATHETIC motion. The best taxi fleet in the whole world doesn't even have age limits, the famed London black cab.
.
.
If these taxis are passing two MOT tests a year then that should be all needed. Or at a compromise introduce an extra test for vehicles over ten years, but to ban them out right is PATHETIC.
7

msmyth,

south ribble 13/10/2008 19:36:44
About time this was done Preston calls its self a city but has shed's for taxis on the road lets follow other cities like Liverpool, London etc and get a dress code and drivers who know the city not the muppets and rip off merchants we have now.
8

Eric Cartman,

Preston 13/10/2008 19:52:04
Dress codes, yeah right.
9

Dave4294,

Preston 13/10/2008 20:34:39
Can we presume that the Council will also force buses off the road when they reach the grand old age of 10? Or Preston City Council's fleet of vehicles? Thought not.

Mike Thorpe's comments that it is about improving air quality are totally ludicrous. Taking a few older vehicles off the road would make so little difference that it would not be measurable.

10

E. Pike,

13/10/2008 20:35:54
This is green propaganda being used to conceal the true agenda. The council has allowed too many taxis on Preston’s roads. The council now need to reduce numbers without losing face, hence the green claim. "A ban on all cars more than 10 years old is being considered by licensing bosses at the city council in a bid to improve air quality".
Is there any evidence that there is an air quality problem in Preston? If so is there any evidence that taxis contribute to it significantly, compared to the huge numbers of vehicles passing through each day? What about the ancient busses running around the town? Are newer taxis any cleaner, and if so would their contribution to cleaner air be measurable? Surely it is greener to encourage people to extend the life of any vehicle as a large proportion of its pollution foot print occurred when it was made.
I am no particular fan of the town’s old taxis, but I detest people such as Mike Thorpe who trot out the same old green lies to justify any unpopular decision.
In the end the additional costs will be passed on to the customer, THAT'S YOU AND ME!


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