Taxi Driver Online

Bath Clean Air Zone: Taxi driver slams 'ludicrous' new scheme

A taxi driver from Bath has slammed the new Clean Air Zone which takes effect today (Monday, March 15).

The scheme is the first in the country, outside London, and will see some vans, buses, coaches and taxis charged to enter a zone covering most of the city.

Ian Green, 55, said the £9 daily charge for some taxis was "ludicrous" after such a tough year for drivers.

He said: "There are probably about 400 taxis in Bath and two thirds will need replacing, in a year when hospitality has been non-existent and we haven’t earned any money.

"The council might give us £4,500 as a grant, but it’s around £14,000 for a new car and it has to be under three years old to register as a taxi. It just seems ludicrous to be doing it at this time."

Mr Green said that taxis were "probably cleaner than most cars" because they had to be serviced regularly to keep their licence.

He drives a Nissan Qashqai and is exempt from road tax due to its low emissions. However, the vehicle still qualifies for a £9 charge under the Clean Air Zone brought in by Bath and North East Somerset Council.

The extra cost comes after a difficult year for taxi drivers, Ian explained.

"Around a third of taxi drivers work nights but they can’t now, so they come into town during the day, so there are extra drivers and about 20 per cent of the work.

"I can’t imagine many places will give finance for a new car when we haven't worked all year, and if we can’t get finance, we could be exempt for two years.

"Well that just seems not to be working at all, why not start it in two years? Taking away 300 taxis isn't going to stop pollution," he said.

The driver's only work currently is a schools contract with the council which involves driving from Batheaston to Southdown.

He said: "There’s not a lot I can retrain for at my age. I know I’m not on the scrapheap but to start a new career at 55 is not easy.

"I don’t know how many taxis there’ll be in Bath after the pandemic."

BANES Council has been approached for comment.

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IDFIMH

These ever more trendy but pretentious schemes are base less on a compassionate view on air quality and more about generating extra revenue at the expense of the road user, if they truly wanted cleaner air then they'ed ban all Petrol/Diesel vehicles.

Bath is the most pretentious up their own a*** place in England.

And the people their aren't much better.

So I hope they ban everything there.

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IDFIMH

Why not just ban all vehicles from the city centre which is a more realistic way of improving air quality.

what and see themselves lambasted in the media for making town/city centres inaccessible to the disabled ?

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector