I am glad to be able to report that RMT’s parliamentary group convenor, John McDonnell MP, has successfully objected to the TFL London Local Authorities Bill at its second reading, on the grounds that it would lead to the continued proliferation of unlicensed, unsafe rickshaws clogging up central London

The RMT parliamentary group objection means that the bill is now kicked back and will have to be presented again for second reading on September 6, at which point RMT will object again, and keep objecting until the final debate on the Bill is given.

RMT will use the breathing space to give us the leverage to force TfL to negotiate on the revised content of the bill and to take tough action against the spread of unsafe and unlicensed rickshaws.

We know that rickshaws are unsafe and increase congestion, and that there are no checks on who is fit and proper to operate them. If John McDonnell hadn’t taken decisive action on behalf of RMT taxi drivers it would have had dire consequences for passenger safety.

The clauses that TfL was trying to bulldoze through made little or no provision for statutory minimum standards or for checks to be carried out on the rickshaws, their riders or their operators. Nor would there have been any provisions for any training to be required or for compulsory registration.

It is shocking that TfL has refused to negotiate on this issue and is ignoring recommendations from parliamentary committees that a compulsory registration scheme for rickshaws and pedicabs should be explored.

RMT and its parliamentary group MPs will continue to fight on this issue to defend the licensed taxi trade against this attack on their livelihoods.

Bob Crow

RMT General Secretary

Then a week later the RMT moved on to Palestra Houst The home of TFL our licencing body and where  John Mason Director of T/PH has is office.

A week later the RMT turned up at the Mayor’s Question time in

Methodist central hall, Story’s Gate Victoria.

Members of the RMT London Taxi branch along with about 500 members of the public attended the talk London meeting with Boris Johnson at the Methodist hall Westminster on June 2nd.
We were in attendance to lobby members of the public prior to the start of the meeting and to ask the Mayor what he intended to do about the appalling situation that now exists in the capital with regard to the huge 54% increase in rape and sexual assaults on women trying to travel home safely at night following a night out.
We at the RMT say this situation is unacceptable and avoidable
It is brought about by those at Tfl refusing to take this matter seriously, and allowing minicabs to form illegal ranks outside venues all over the capital this allows would be attackers to remain on the streets unchallenged this is totally illegal and must be stopped.
We say that the law must be enforced to remove this menace from our streets it will come as no surprise to our taxi driver members that when the Mayor was asked about this matter he was totally unable to give a satisfactory answer. We at the RMT will continue to pursue the Mayor Boris Johnson Director of TPH John Mason and the Director of Transport for London Peter Hendy until this appalling situation is resolved.

RMT members Mick Bailey,Stan Marut, Steve Emment

RMT at Mayors Question Time

The RMT will continue in their quest, to bring to order those responsible for the mess they’ve got the London Licenced taxi trade in. As the saying goes. When the going gets tough, the tough gets going.

Never on our knees

Wednesday the 25th of May there will be a  demonstration by the RMT London taxi branch,outside Palestra House 197 Blackfriars Rd,from midday to 14:00

Palestra house is where London taxi and Private hire are Licensed from.

This is where John Mason, head of T/PH has his office inside TFL’s office block, and this is why the RMT  will be demonstrating outside there on Wednesday.

The RMT London Taxi Branch, would therefore like to invite every Taxi driver irrespective of political belief to attend Palestra Building on Wednesday 25th May 2011 at mid day till 2 pm.

LTDA, LCDC, Unite, RMT, UCG and unaffiliated, all are welcome to come along.

The RMT have also invited,  the Suzy Lamplugh trust,Crisis rape England and Wales, the TUC Womens officer and RMT’s womens officer.

The BBC and Chanel 4 have also been informed.

What this demo is about:
RECENT FIGURES RELEASED BY TRANSPORT FOR LONDON (TfL) SHOW THAT SINCE THE YEAR 2008 THERE HAS BEEN A 54% INCREASE IN SEXUAL ASSAULTS AND RAPE CARRIED OUT BY LICENSED AND UNLICENSED MINICAB DRIVERS.

MEMBERS OF THE RMT LONDON TAXI BRANCH BELIEVE THAT THIS IS A DIRECT RESULT OF A LACK OF ENFORCEMENT UNDERTAKEN BY THE BODY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE LICENSING OF THESE VEHICLES – TRANSPORT FOR LONDON.

THE TRANSPORT COMMISSIONER, PETER HENDY, WHEN ASKED OUTSIDE HIS OFFICE BY MEMBERS OF THE RMT TO COMMENT ON THIS HUGE INCREASE SAID,

“There are people trying to work in this building. You are nothing but a bunch of selfish arrogant fools. Now go away”.

TfL ARE SHOWING A CALLOUS DISREGARD FOR THE SAFETY OF WOMEN AT NIGHT AND THESE KINDS OF REMARKS ARE NOT HELPFUL. THIS HUGE INCREASE IN ASSAULTS EQUATES TO ABOUT 10 PER MONTH.

LICENSED TAXI DRIVERS STATE THAT THIS SITUATION IS WHOLLY UNACCEPTABLE AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY, UNAVOIDABLE.

LONDON TAXI DRIVERS ARE THE SAFEST AND THE BEST IN THE WORLD AND BELIEVE THAT THE SITUATION IS SO SERIOUS THAT THEY MUST ACT TO CONVINCE THOSE RESPONSIBLE TO VIGOROUSLY ENFORCE THE LAW.

THE APPALLING RISE IN THE NUMBER OF ATTACKS IS A DIRECT RESULT OF THE FAILURE OF THE AUTHORITIES TO CONTROL THE ILLEGAL RANKING OF MINICABS (PRIVATE HIRE VEHICLES) OUTSIDE NIGHT VENUES ALL OVER LONDON OR AT LOCATIONS WHICH ARE THE LEGITIMATE STANDINGS FOR REGULAR TAXIS THEREBY NOT GIVING THE PUBLIC THE OPPORTUNITY TO USE TAXIS.

DID YOU KNOW THIS?

•    40 % OF VICTIMS ATTACKED AND ASSAULTED BY THESE MINICAB DRIVERS ACTING ILLEGALY ARE UNDER THE AGE OF 18
•    80 % OF WOMEN DO NOT REPORT AN ATTACK IMMEDIATELY
•    60% OF WOMEN NEVER REPORT ATTACKS
•    VICTIMS ARE MORE LIKELY TO CONSIDER DRUG ABUSE AFTER ATTACKS.

THE RMT LONDON TAXI BRANCH HAS APPROACHED THE TRANSPORT COMMISSIONER AND THE DIRECTOR OF TAXIS AND PRIVATE HIRE SEVERAL TIMES ON THIS ISSUE AND THEY HAVE REPEATEDLY REFUSED TO ENGAGE WITH THE RMT TO ENSURE THAT THE LAW IS VIGOUROUSLY ENFORCED TO REMOVE THIS THREAT FROM THE STREETS OF LONDON.

THE RMT LONDON TAXI BRANCH WILL MEET THE AUTHORITIES AT ANY TIME TO SUGGEST WAYS THAT WILL ELIMINATE THE ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES OF MINICAB DRIVERS.

THIS CAPITAL CITY IS UNSAFE FOR WOMEN AT NIGHT TRAVELLING ALONE WHO RESORT TO MINICABS WHICH THEY PICK UP OUTSIDE NIGHT VENUES.

WE SAY “ENFORCE THE LAW AND MAKE THIS CITY SAFE FROM RAPISTS POSING AS MINICAB DRIVERS”.

BE SAFE, BE SURE, ALWAYS use A LICENSED TAXI.

The RMT never on our knees.

E MAIL: londontaxi@rmt.org.uk

Video taken by kind permission of TheAndersonShelter

Taxis and rickshaws soon competing for rank space.

The RMT and its London taxi branch will petition against “clause 19″ of this bill for it seeks to create pedicab “ranks/bays” on the public highway. If pedicabs gain ranks and bays then the private hire, mini-cab will surely demand at least the same.

Transport for London doesn’t seem to care about our trade and they certainly don’t give a dam about our hard earned right to “ply for hire” which is an activity defined by our unique ability to RANK. Others within our trade talk even brag about seeking a ban of pedicabs from the public highway but want to let this bill slip through parliament.

So here’s the RMT London taxi branch challenge, petition AGAINST “clause 19″ and work to BAN pedicabs from the public highway or do nothing and support Westminster City Council and Transport for London’s unenforceable “VOLUNTARY” registration scheme.

The “VOLUNTARY” registration scheme will lead to “ranks/bays” on public highway for pedicabs.

A new Addison Lee?

Remember!

* The people in authority, can’t stop the touting.

* They can’t deter the attacks on women.

* They can’t even clear our taxi ranks at night of mini-cabs and cars.

* The people in authority are incompetent and lack the knowledge and understanding of our trade.

Join the RMT London taxi branch and STOP pedicab ranks/bays by saying NO to clause 19.

John Kennedy, Chairman,

RMT London taxi branch.

The Banners going up outside the entrance to Oxford Circus underground station.

This is the 3rd demonstration this year against Rapes and sexual assults.

At 3pm, thousands of London Taxis descended on Oxford Circus in protest against Satellite Offices which they believe are directly responsible for the alarming number of rapes and sexual assaults being committed in licensed and illegal minicabs in London.

London’s traffic was held up for more then 2 hours.

They were also joined by hundreds of motorbikes from the ‘No To Bike Parking Tax’ Lobby who seriously raised the noise levels with their horns and sirens. They were there to support the UCG in their protest at this very serious public safety issue, and to show their own displeasure against Westminster Council and their draconian parking enforcement regulations.

Hundreds of motor bikes joined the taxis on their crusade.

After 2 hours at Oxford Circus they moved on to the  Palestra building in Blackfriars Road

There were a number of police and security outside the building, and they were quite happy to let the UCG hold this peaceful demonstration. Many of the officers said they supported the UCG and agreed that this situation was now out of control.

The demonstration at Palestra lasted for over an hour with approximately 300 Taxis circling the building and many more who simply could not get near it with the queue stretching back to Blackfriars Bridge and beyond.

A long line of taxis outside the Palastra building

Just after 5pm John Mason was approached by a UCG spokesperson who tried to speak to him but was told to go away, I don’t want to talk to you.

Remember this is John Mason Director of Taxis and Private Hire refusing to talk to the UCG.

This again was a well organised demonstration by the UCG.

Campaign against Blacked out windows in Mini Cabs

The situation where a sexual predator can flick a switch and imprison a lone female in their PCO licensed minicab with blacked out windows has got to come to an end, it’s as simple as that.

Many years ago, it was deemed unfitting for London’s black cabs (Taxis) to have dark glass in the rear window. Reports of prostitutes using Black Cabs to service their clients “ twice round the outer circle, slowly, driver” had been wildly exaggerated in the press, but the powers to be thought it enough reason to banned darken rear windows in Taxis.

Over the past six years, we have seen the rise in use of PHV people carriers with black glass on rear and side windows. In the same period of time, there has been a shocking rise in the numbers of sexual assaults, including rapes, which is now running at 8-10 a month, (this is just the victims that report the crime, it is thought to be a much higher figure and its not just women that are being sexually attacked). Passengers have also been the victims of personal robberies, mainly women, have reported having phones, handbag’s and other property taken.

We have concerns that it is “unethical” that Private Hire Vehicles (Mini Cabs) have blacked out windows in the backs of their vehicles. Combined with central locking, an attacker just flicks a switch and imprisons a lone female. No one is aware of this passenger’s dangerous predicament.

The responsibility of the Public Carriage Office should have been not to allow Blacked out Windows in Private Hire Vehicles in the first instance. However, lack of insight has, and will continue to be detrimental to the travelling public, especially women late at night. Cost should not be an issue as in most cases these black windows are just a sheet of film applied to the vehicles glass.

—————————————————————————————————-

Check out the video below.

Please go to WWW.theandersonshelter.blogspot.com and join the campaign.

The Anderson Shelter Campaign.

We ask ever Taxi driver to help. We would ask you all to write, email or tweet every person you can think of that could add weight to this campaign. MP’s, Local Councillors can be found by entering post codes in the box provided. Most of these people have twitter accounts and we have composed a set of tweets below that can be used to draw there attention to this issue.

Tweeting.

If a full stop is placed in front of a persons twitter address, then the tweet is sent to every one of that person follower’s. Example;

.@DarrenJohnsonAM will be sent to every one who follows this green party member ofthe London Assembly.

Just by doing a little digging you can find an address of you MP or Assembly Member.

These people follow many important names in local government and in turn are followed by many important people. Just by each driver sending just one tweet, our message could go viral at the speed of light.

Tweets:

Please support the campaign to ban blacked out windows in mini cabs and help stop sexual assaults on young women http://bit.ly/cZM933

8-10 sexual assaults including rape every month. Join our campaign to banned black rear windows in mini cabs http://bit.ly/cZM933

Flick of a switch, she’s a prisoner in the PHV with black windows. Join our campaign to ban black windows in minicabs http://bit.ly/cZM933

Emails.

You can find the address of your MP, MEP and Local Councillors by entering your postcode in the White box in E-mail addresses & Complaint templates from the home page. We have decided against a template as when some one in authority starts to receive the same worded email from lots of different senders they take little or no notice of the content.

If you really can not compose your own email just copy and past the article at the beginning of this post, between the red lines!

Other email addresses;

Boris Johnston, mayor@london.gov.uk
Transport commissioner Peter Hendy,peterhendy@tfl.gov.uk
Stephen Hammond MP de facto Minister for London hammonds@parliament.uk
Philip Hammond Secretary of state for Transport
hammondp@parliament.uk

Letters to MP’s and Assembly Members.

Letters are the hardest form of complaint to arrange as most people have not written a letter for many years. But it is a very powerful medium that adds much weight to a campaign.
Again if words do not come easy to you, just use the article between the red lines.

Hand Out Leaflets.
If you have the facilities, we would also ask drivers to print out the article

(between the red lines) and hand to customers. It will be a good way to get support from the general public that use Taxis and PHV’s.

Taken with kind permission from the The Anderson shelter

Be lucky, Steve.

I joined the organizers at a meeting point just outside the Aldwych, when ready we set of and parked up between the Waldorf Hotel and the Kingsway and as before erected our banner.

Picture by Stormcab

There was good coverage from the BBC and independent photographers. More from Demotix and Westminster Chronicle

After about an hour the police started directing the traffic away and up Kingsway, so we sent all the cabs to holborn Circus and it jammed up the whole area.

This is what some of the drivers had to say.

On the left David Hopkins aka @cabbydavid on Twitter said the events of the last two weeks have shown me that drivers are fed up of poor leadership from their Association/Union.

Another driver lee Patterson says, re demo point made to TFL, PH rules must be enforced unless they want random action all over the City from this September.

On the right is Mark Morris, this is what he says, Great show of unity of non affiliated drivers,

Cab driver Kevin Portch commented by saying that it was well publicist, well supported by cabbies, media and public also good natured despite the serious underlying issues, He also says there was a bigger cabbie presence this week and the police were for us.

The BBC clip below is of cab driver Paul Kelly, one of London’s finest cabbies and driver of TweetaLondoncab.

That’s all our big demos till after the football then we’ll be back, you will all be informed a few days before, keep em peeled and stay tuned in.

Be lucky, Steve.

Thousands of cab drivers and Knowledge boys and girls from all over London demonstrated in the Aldwych, they were protesting against the lack of enforcement by the  authorities and  are not happy with the way our licensing authorities are dealing with our problems and complaints. The laws that apply to private hire are not being enforced and licensed taxi drivers are being persecuted by aggressive compliance officers on a regular basis.

A large convoy of cabbies arrived on the scene around 2:15 pm , we all parked up opposite the Waldorf Hotel, we were the first to arrive and the traffic was flowing gently past. It wasn’t long before it started to get jammed up, after about three hours of gridlock the police started to control us, blocking of roads and sending cabs over Waterloo Bridge.

This is the Strand with all cabs being directed towards Waterloo Bridge.

Once over Waterloo Bridge they all headed towards the Palestra Building in Blackfriars Road, thats where TFL now control the PCO.

This is just a handful of the many Knowledge Boys and Girls  that joined in our protest, posing in the Aldwych.

A spokesman from the organizers, The London Taxi drivers forum (LTDF) said “we will carry on complaining and continue to demonstrate until the authorities do what we pay them to do and that is protect our sole right to ply for hire on the streets of the capital”.

The organizers of this demonstration would like to thank all cabbies and knowledge boys and girls for showing their support.

As the saying goes Stand Up & Fight, or Lay Down & Die?

If you need to contact someone about this Demo contact savethetaxitrade@yahoo.com

Be lucky, Steve.

]]> http://legaledoff.com/2010/05/27/1st-united-cabbies-demo-of-2010/feed/ 1 http://legaledoff.com/2010/05/25/london-black-taxi-cab-demo-tout-and-illegal-minicab-evidence/ http://legaledoff.com/2010/05/25/london-black-taxi-cab-demo-tout-and-illegal-minicab-evidence/#comments Tue, 25 May 2010 13:26:47 +0000 steve http://legaledoff.com/?p=3970 This sort of thing goes on night after night,the evidence is there but the local authorities decide to ignore it. This is why this Demo is going ahead.

London cab drivers have had enough, we have literally sent thousands of E-mails and letters of complaint and evidence of illegal activity, to all concerned over the last couple of years and they show us nothing but contempt.

Video by Storm cab,

Be lucky, Steve.