On May 17, 6:02*pm, wrote:
On May 17, 2:32*pm, Simon Mason wrote:









QUOTE:

Up to 1,000 minicab drivers in Manchester were this morning due to
stage a go-slow protest drive from the Etihad Stadium to Manchester
Town Hall to deliver a petition protesting against what they allege
are discriminatory rules preventing them from stopping in bus lanes to
pick up or drop off passengers, while drivers of Hackney carriages –
or black cabs – are permitted to do so.

The protest has clear echoes of the ongoing dispute in London between
Britain’s biggest private hire operator, Addison Lee, and Transport
for London, with a judicial review due under way to decide whether
current rules which permit licensed cabs to drive in bus lanes but
prevent minicabs for doing so are discriminatory.

Last month, TfL secured a High Court injunction to prevent Addison Lee
drivers from seeking to ignore current rules, which they had been
instructed to do in a letter sent to them by the firm’s founder and
chairman, John Griffin, who had said that the company would indemnify
them in respect of any fines and other costs they incurred as a
result.

Cycle campaigners in London have campaigned against minicabs being
allowed in bus lanes in the city, which are seen as providing a refuge
of sorts for cyclists from much of the capital’s traffic.

Quoted on BBC News, Nigel Murphy Manchester City Council’s executive
member for the environment, maintained that permitting minicabs to use
bus lanes "would affect the reliability of bus services, which huge
numbers of people in Manchester depend upon to get access to work,
education or healthcare.

"Today's protest will do nothing but cause more congestion in the
city, aggravating people who are trying to go about their business."

Speaking on behalf of the Private Hire Association, solicitor James
Parry commented: "We now have something like 2,500 taxi drivers in
Manchester and 1,500 Hackney carriage drivers.

"Anybody who can't get a Hackney carriage, because they don't happen
to have one drive past their door, has to pre-book a vehicle and they
are likely to have a private hire vehicle come to their door.

"They charge more because they can't use the bus lanes so they can't
for example get to Victoria Station easily or as quickly as a Hackney
carriage would.

"That is discriminatory, it is unnecessary and it doesn't serve the
city very well in the Private Hire Association's view."

http://road.cc/content/news/58461-ma...ivers-stage-go...

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Simon Mason

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Simon Mason