Why London 'black cab' taxi's need an exemption in Lower Traffic Neighbourhoods
- By Brian Leveson
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- 04 Jul, 2021
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When you have a paraplegic child with complex health needs who required 24/7 care it is impossible to get about London to get to essential hospital appointments if you do no use a black cab. Because of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) we have found our journey's are now costing at least £10 more to school or Great Ormond Street Hospital for sick children (GOSH)
Low Traffic Neighbourhoods: The situation as things stand - and why they are about to get worse
As things stand, we do not live in a Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN), but we are about to be surrounded by 2 of them St Ann's and Bruce Grove.
However, our son's school is slap bang in the middle of one, and we have found that our journeys to school or Great Ormond Street Hospital for sick children have almost doubled in price as cabbies now literally have to go round the houses to get us there.
As frequent users of GOSH inpatients and outpatients services (we must go once a month), we can tell you there is NO PARKING on Great Ormond Street and using public transport is not feasible in a pandemic or not in a pandemic. Deep underground tube use would be a death sentence for us if we had a medical emergency or there was a a prolonged delay, but also our local tube station and the nearest tube station to GOSH are not step free.
However, our son's school is slap bang in the middle of one, and we have found that our journeys to school or Great Ormond Street Hospital for sick children have almost doubled in price as cabbies now literally have to go round the houses to get us there.
As frequent users of GOSH inpatients and outpatients services (we must go once a month), we can tell you there is NO PARKING on Great Ormond Street and using public transport is not feasible in a pandemic or not in a pandemic. Deep underground tube use would be a death sentence for us if we had a medical emergency or there was a a prolonged delay, but also our local tube station and the nearest tube station to GOSH are not step free.
Exemptions for London's 21,000 wheelchair accessible 'black cab' taxi's are needed in LTN areas
It seems obvious to us,
but for people with complex disabilities and their carer the fleet 21,000 wheelchair accessible (WAVs) London black cabs are essential for us to be able to safely access essential services such as hospital appointments.
Our child needs 24/7 care and it would be irresponsible as well as incredibly stressful for us to even attempt to drive ourselves to appointments while caring for such a complex and medically unstable person at the same time.
https://www.gov.uk/transport-disabled/taxis-and-minicabs
Our child needs 24/7 care and it would be irresponsible as well as incredibly stressful for us to even attempt to drive ourselves to appointments while caring for such a complex and medically unstable person at the same time.
https://www.gov.uk/transport-disabled/taxis-and-minicabs
You cannot get an electric wheelchair accessible vehicle on the Motability scheme
The Motability Scheme enables anyone in receipt of a higher rate mobility allowance (such as the Enhanced Rate of the Mobility Component of Personal Independence Payment or the Higher Rate Mobility Component of Disability Living Allowance) to use their mobility allowance to lease a car, scooter, powered wheelchair or Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle.
The Scheme provides flexible and hassle-free access to a brand-new, reliable vehicle of your choice – giving you greater freedom, everyday.
https://www.motability.co.uk/c/ppc/welcome-to-the-motability-scheme/?gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=Cjw...
https://www.motability.co.uk/c/ppc/welcome-to-the-motability-scheme/?gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=Cjw...
Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles (WAVs) are vehicles that are specially converted so a wheelchair user can travel as a passenger or a driver. Here you can find an overview of WAVs. https://www.motability.co.uk/products/wheelchair-accessible-vehicles/what-is-a-wav/
The above search results shows that electric WAVs are currently unavailable on the scheme.
Black cabs are seemingly the only feasible solution to getting to and from essential appointments - but the cost keeps going up, thanks to LTNs
If you thought SEND was bad - the NHS is seemingly prepared to throw away money to private companies
About 3 or 4 times a year we get the euphemistic message 'Parents please note we have put a letter in your child's bag' - its a world away from how a child's death was handled in my child's first school
More of a trial by ordeal than a well organised clearly set out administrative process for moving the care of vulnerable young adults from Haringey's Children's Services to Adult Services. We have been failed at every stage of the process.
Never EVER get on the bus without a camera running if you need the priority wheelchair space
The reality of using a London Bus in the teeming rain on a Sunday afternoon is no joke when the parents of a paraplegic person in a wheelchair clash with the self-entitled buggy-pushing parents of toddlers.
At 3pm today I received some barefaced lies from Haringey Council Adult Social Care in response to a photograph I published online yesterday and the media interest it generated
Haringey SEND Transport are insisting that a 17 year old minibus with no air conditioning is a suitable vehicle to transport my paraplegic son in this heatwave. The appalling conditions inside the minibus inside the bus is something they knew about last summer, yet they have to date done nothing whatsoever provide a suitable minibus this year nor appropriately mitigate the temperatures inside the minibus.The conditions inside the minibus are so bad that they triggered multiple seizures during the heatwave as my son has epilepsy, which they SEND transport department know about and they also know that they are triggered by heat.It is not just son who is impacted: last year we know of one child who died on Haringey SEND Transport in the summer heatwave and another who had seizures.
I am simply asking a question - are we all absolutely certain that the road closure / travel restrictions (commonly know as LTNs) placed on some of the most severely disabled people who are wholly reliant on cars are absolutely necessary
Haringey's road closures exemptions policy for disabled people is not fit for purpose, unduly burdensome and intrusive - it's time to stand up against the pro-LTN lycra-clad cycling bullies
Is the argument for and against exemptions for disabled people in Low Traffic Neighbourhoods really a case of GOOD versus EVIL?
