North Yorkshire: Campaigner puts pressure on council to get more wheelchair taxis on the road

Ian Lawson, who has motor neurone disease, lives seven miles out of Whitby - a town with many visitors but just one wheelchair taxi.

Mr Lawson uses a powered wheelchair to get out and about and regularly uses buses from a stop a mile from his house. But he says they often don't arrive "so the ability to obtain a taxi capable of taking me in my wheelchair would be good, but has never happened".

It has meant missed appointments at his GP surgery and at hospital in Middlesbrough as well as social events.

Across North Yorkshire just 70 out of 673 hackney cabs are wheelchair accessible; a figure which has fallen despite a new council policy incentivising drivers to buy one.

He said the few wheelchair taxis that do exist are used primarily for school transport, paid for by North Yorkshire Council (NYC), or for contract work at care homes.

Mr Lawson’s plight is a far cry from cities like Hull, Bradford, Doncaster and Sheffield where all hackney cabs are wheelchair accessible – more than half are in South Yorkshire, Leeds, Calderdale and West Yorkshire.

He feels too much attention is given to the taxi trade and has heard "nonsense" claims including by a driver that it takes 30 minutes to strap a wheelchair into a taxi, when those helping him can do it in three or four minutes. He said cost shouldn't be an issue as most accessible taxis were bought second hand from Motability.

Despite a new policy introduced by NYC last year the number of wheelchair accessible hackney cabs has dropped from 77 last June to 70 now. An Inclusive Service Plan (a survey of unmet need) has since been commissioned, he said, with a report expected imminently.

He said the only route left to campaigners may be legal action, adding: "It is completely wrong that a disabled person, at great financial risk to themselves, needs to use the High Court… Personally, I live in hope that councillors will find a way to remove the current discrimination across North Yorkshire."

Adrian Smith, chairman of Scarborough and District Taxi Association, runs Abbey Taxis in Whitby, the only local firm to have a wheelchair taxi.

He is putting a second wheelchair taxi on the road, but doesn't believe there is an unmet need judging from the number of inquiries they get. He said the NYC policy offered owners of wheelchair taxis a free licence and meant their vehicle didn't have an age limit. He said: "If people haven't taken the council up on that, they aren't going to."

NYC's corporate director of environment, Karl Battersby, said: “We acknowledge the lived experience of wheelchair users across the county, and we are committed to securing improvements in provision.”

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