Taxi Driver Online

Try getting about in a wheelchair


I SEE Huw Lewis, head of Nexus corporate communications, has replied to Mrs Lambton’s letter with the usual company line of non-information.

He gives all the wonderful details of what Nexus are providing, but he doesn’t give any details of what it actually consists of.

You cannot use the local taxis with your taxi card.

We were told there was going to be several taxi companies involved in the taxi link scheme.

There are only two involved, which happen to be the two dearest taxi companies in Newcastle.

He also doesn’t say what taxi cards cost for local journeys.

When a taxi pulls up at your door, there is £2.50 on the meter before it even pulls away.

Mr Lewis says you pay £10 a year membership for an annual card.

One return journey a week only lasts 40 weeks, not a year.

He also says taxi link has extended journeys, but can he tell me which link-up bus I can get to go from West Denton to the Freeman Hospital?

I can go to the RVI, but I can’t go to the Freeman.

Mr Lewis also says that the shopper bus takes you to the MetroCentre or Kingston Park, but you go on their timetable.

He also encourages us to use the normal local bus services.

Can you explain how someone with a wheelchair gets from their house to the bus stop for the local bus?

Can you also explain how long you have to wait or if you have got priority to get on a bus when it eventually turns up?

Mr Lewis also says the scheme has 2,000 members and the number has risen steadily.

This I find hard to believe. I no longer use the taxis because I can’t afford to.

He also says the taxi scheme is fully wheelchair accessible, but I think about scooters or electric wheelchairs and I find this very, very hard to believe.

I challenge Mr Lewis and the hierarchy at Nexus to use a wheelchair for one week and use all the schemes that they have brought in.

It’s a mish-mash of things to try and replace the care service which Nexus didn’t want in the first place.

It seems to me that if you are a student or an under-16, Nexus will give you all the benefits going.

If you are disabled you just go to the back of the queue.

DAVID WHITTLE, West Denton.

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin