North East Lincolnshire councillors are making strong strides towards bettering the accessibility offered by regional taxi services. It came to light in a recent council assembly that a mere 16% of the district’s taxis are currently equipped for wheelchair use. As a solution, a vote has been taken and passed by the councillors to retain all existing wheelchair accessible vehicles (WAVs). They will now mandate that all fresh applicants for hackney carriages must offer wheelchair facilities.
This decision marks a shift away from previous guidelines that permitted WAVs to convert back to saloon-type cars if operators sought a medical dispensation. This regulation was removed last year. The council was notified that the proportion of wheelchair-accessible taxis has seen a significant drop. It used to be at 47%, prior to the regulatory amendments in 2013.
Despite having 204 taxis for the 220 available licenses in the area, councillors have proposed to keep this limit as is. Furthermore, the council consented to continue the policy of allowing vehicles to utilise any type of fuel source. This is in spite of proposals to make it compulsory for electric or hybrid-powered vehicles. Councillor Robson Augusta, who chairs the committee, named the high costs involved and the challenge of infrastructure as the rationale for not enforcing electric or hybrid dictums.
Over the next few weeks, the proposed amendments will be put up for discussion with drivers and the North East Lincolnshire Hackney Carriage Association.
Thanks are due to The Lincoln Post for adapting this report from the original findings detailed by www.bbc.com.
