Good Morning David

We thank you for your email but due to its timing it did not allow us enough notice to be able to register to speak at the scrutiny meeting and gave us very little time to consult with our members.

We therefore wish that this email be used as written representation to the Scrutiny Meeting and added to the agenda papers as a supplement.

On 22nd May we attended a “Hackney Carriage Engagement Session - City Centre Sustainable Travel Corridor meeting where we would be asked for our thoughts on the potential impacts and opportunities for the trade with a view to helping the designs put forward in the consultation and the questions to be asked.”

We were shown an impressive video & illustrations of the proposals and were informed that the corridor would be for cyclists, buses & hackney carriages. Our Chair questioned that the optimistic extended travel times put forward by Highways from which we were informed that a further meeting on this subject would be arranged. Despite our requests this has not taken place.

We were very dismayed to find that the consultation excluded Hackney Carriages from using the “Transport Corridor” and felt that we had been “Thrown under the bus”

At the meeting we were told that 1079 buses per day pass through the corridor from which we can calculate meaningful figures to the consultation leaflet midweek percentages quoted which total 99%

Buses (8%) =1079, Private Cars (46%) = 6204, Taxis (15%) = 2023, LGV (10%) = 1349, Cyclists (18%) = 2428, Motorcycles (2%) = 270.

Planned reduction in traffic through corridor (74%) = 9980 vehicles.

Therefore 9980 extra vehicles per day are forced to find an alternative route via either Lendall Bridge or Bishopgate Street neither of which can truly cope with their existing traffic flow.

Closing roads is not the answer it just moves traffic to another area exasperating further congestion and delays affecting the economy of York.

We have already seen this with the Groves closure & traffic congestion chaos around Lord Mayors Walk, Clarence St, Wigginton Rd leading to the Hospital

Road closures & restrictions affect all of how we run our Hackney Carriage Businesses. Longer journeys increase fares and increase the costs to the people who can least afford it but are unable to travel by alternative public transport.

We will also become too expensive for passengers who can afford us and they will then turn to their own vehicles as a cheaper option where possible.

You may say that we are getting paid for queueing, but we lose money as we do not get any payment for queueing on our return.

Hackney Carriages are a vital and important part of the transport network connecting residents & businesses to the wider transport networks. (Government “Taxi (Hackney Carriage) & Private Hire best practice guidelines for Local

Authorities“)

By denying access for Hackney Carriages to the Transport Corridor you are impeding our ability to service the Railway Station with an average of more than 28,000 passengers per day who either start or end their journeys at this point.

Hackney Carriages are “Sustainable Travel” and have been treated as such in other Council documents for quite some time.

Hackney Carriages are Public Hire Vehicles but also Public Transport and we believe that there is a Court Judgement confirming this.

Hackney Carriages are seen as the solution to Wheelchair Accessible Transport by the Council, yet we are also regarded as the problem when it comes Traffic congestion.

The Council aim their disabled transport policy at wheelchair accessible vehicles. There are many forms of disability (Some not visible). These people rely on Hackney Carriages as their only form of transport, together with elderly citizens who have become less mobile, they have difficulties with other forms of Public Transport. We would also like to point out that we are an ageing society.

Hackney Carriages bear the crest of York City Council for which we pay a license fee, but by having this crest many passengers believe it is a Public Transport service provided by the Council & we are their employees.

We also travel on the same roads as buses and have the same congestion problems & delays but without having the benefits of a huge subsidy.

The extended bus times between Blossom St, the Station and Stonebow are self-inflicted by making Coppergate one way. 50% reduction in traffic, but what else would be expected.

Public Consultation

A freedom of information request for all traffic survey raw data used in this scheme revealed its true extent.

The public consultation was based on a midweek spreadsheet traffic survey between 7am & 7pm on Wednesday 23rd October 2024 only

A further spreadsheet traffic survey was taken between 7am & 7pm on Saturday 26th October 2024 but the results from this were not used in the consultation. This may have been because Schools broke up for half term on Friday 25th &

there was also a light show at York Minster on 26th both of which would give abnormal results.

We would suggest that the traffic survey the consultation is based on is a mere snapshot of the true traffic flow as it only covers a half day survey. There is insufficient data to produce any form of reliable Computer Modelling to indicate the

effects of the proposed scheme and also form of any reliable estimate of reduced bus times and extended journey times of other types of vehicles.

Should the Council pursue this scheme in its existing form, based on such wafer-thin evidence, then it will be up to the District Auditors to decide whether the public purse has been raided under false pretences to the eventual tune of £17.2 million that we were also told at the meeting.

Regards

Alan Brewer (Secretary) York Taxi Association Group

Daniel Smith (Chair) York Taxi Association Group

Gary Graham (Vice Chair) York Taxi Association Group

(73 years combined experience in the York Taxi Trade)