{"id":29903,"date":"2021-09-10T16:39:24","date_gmt":"2021-09-10T15:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=29903"},"modified":"2021-09-10T16:39:26","modified_gmt":"2021-09-10T15:39:26","slug":"leeds-taxi-rank-protest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=29903","title":{"rendered":"Leeds taxi rank protest"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Those with disabilities and the elderly using Leeds station will face \u00e2\u20ac\u0098intolerable obstacles\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 if they wish to hail a cab, as the current taxi rank is set to be moved further from the platforms, Unite the union warned today (September 10).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So concerned are campaigners by the proposal that they will be staging a protest at Leeds Civic Hall at 11.30am  on Tuesday (September 14) to lobby councillors to keep the rank where it is. This will be followed by a march from the Civic Hall to Millennium Square where there will be speeches from 2pm<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite said that the current rank is on the main concourse 45 metres from the entrance. However, the proposed rank, scheduled for 2023, is down steep steps or via a lift, which, if not working, will mean able bodied, the elderly and disabled having a 165 metre walk\/wheelchair journey to reach it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The alternative is to keep it where it is now or move it to the left hand side outside the station entrance, similar to London\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Paddington Station which already operates a cab rank inside the station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite said that Leeds City Council, Network Rail and the West Yorkshire Combined Authority all had \u00e2\u20ac\u0098their fingerprints\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 on this flawed plan which is allegedly designed at making passenger movements easier, even though rail travellers at Leeds station are not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite\u00c2\u00a0 regional officer Darren Rushworth said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bTuesday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s protest by disability campaigners is aimed at asking the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098powers that be\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 to jettison this proposal which will put intolerable obstacles in the way of disabled people and the elderly who will have nearly four times the length to go to seek a taxi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is supposedly happening to make passenger movements easier and to cope with modelled increases in passenger numbers, but the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has already shown that the throughput is down by 12 per cent for Leeds station in 2020 and that it did not anticipate the same levels of passenger movements in future with people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s changing habits to work and travel,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite and a wide range of disability organisations want the status quo to continue and for people actually running this development to listen rather than dismissing our legitimate arguments, most of which have been outlined to the local council many times.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c2\u00a0Unite branch secretary for passenger transport\/cab section for Yorkshire Paul Landau noted, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhile taxi drivers will lose custom as people are driven by what is called ‘line-of-sight’ and if they cannot see a cab rank they will either walk or use an App to gain carriage, but that is not our principle objection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are primarily concerned about an expensive and misguided proposal that the travelling public don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want – a snapshot survey we conducted at the station showed that 75 per cent of people wanted the rank to remain as it is \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and the very detrimental impact it will have on our fellow citizens who have a disability or who are elderly,” he added. “We should be making their lives easier, not more difficult.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Speaking at the Millennium Square protest will be Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Paul Landau; Unite branch chair Vasim Akhtar; Tim McSharry – AUAG spokesperson (Access Use Ability Group); Mary Naylor MBE – National Federation of the Blind \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Leeds branch (NFBUK) & Access Use Ability Group (AUAG); Emma Stuart – Access Committee for Leeds (ACL); Eileen Hallas – Access Use Ability Group (AUAG) and Phil Gleeson – Access Use Ability Group (AUAG).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c2\u00a0Unite is dedicated to advancing the jobs, pay and conditions of its members and will fight back against any efforts to diminish workers’ living standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Shaun Noble<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Those with disabilities and the elderly using Leeds station will face \u00e2\u20ac\u0098intolerable obstacles\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 if they wish to hail a cab, as the current taxi rank is set to be moved further from the platforms, Unite the union warned today (September 10). So concerned are campaigners by the proposal that they will be staging a protest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29904,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"wps_subtitle":"\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Intolerable obstacles\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 at Leeds station face disabled and elderly travellers as taxi rank is set to move, Unite warns","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29903"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29903"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29906,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29903\/revisions\/29906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}