Discriminatory Accusations
With the majority of taxi drivers in Exeter being of a different nationality, there have been comments on how it feels as though the council is discriminating against them.
Chairman of the Exeter St David’s Taxi Association, Amir Mossadeph, said: “De-restriction would be an absolute disaster and is completely unacceptable because it would destroy whole businesses. The foreign drivers would become like chickens for the slaughterhouse. There’s a sense of discrimination.”
However, Exeter City Council commented that the drivers who had suggested discriminatory behaviour had been misguided. The council claimed that, in fact, the bulk of new applications received were from immigrants.
Businesses Will Struggle
Aside from this, the drivers say that if the plans go ahead the taxi trade will feel the strain and inevitably businesses will fail.
Concerned hackney driver, Hassan Al-Seaidy, 58, said: “This policy will open the floodgates for people to get hackney plates.
“The whole community of taxi drivers are very worried about it. Many taxi drivers came here with nothing. They worked in factories to save money to buy a licence plate. Now they are worried their investment will be worthless and they’ll not have enough money to live. But the council is not listening to us.”
Drivers Offer to Pay for Unmet Demand Survey
Members of the Exeter St David’s Taxi Association feel so strongly against the proposal that they have offered to fund an unmet demand survey to back up their complaints that a council report, released in July 2014, contained ‘gross factual inaccuracies and omissions’ with regard to de-restriction.
The de-restriction proposal, as well as introducing a specific cab colour, in-cab CCTV and improved wheelchair-accessible cabs will be discussed at the licensing committee meeting on February 3rd.
A council spokesman added: “Officers feel that higher-quality criteria would prevent the increase in numbers and lowering of standards seen elsewhere when de-restriction has taken place in an unmanaged way.”