LTPH Ranks Update 2nd August 2013

Below is the latest taxi ranks update to help keep you informed. 

News

RideLondon, Saturday – Sunday 4 August 2013

Don’t forget that the Prudential RideLondon Cycling Festival takes place from Saturday 3 to Sunday 4 August. There will be road closures in central London on the Saturday and a large number of road and bridge closures across east, central and southwest London and parts of Surrey on the Sunday. Details of road and bridge closures are available here.

 

RideLondon – Surrey route Sunday 4 August

The 100 mile Prudential RideLondon-Surrey route, on 4 August, will start in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, passing Tower Hill, Blackfriars, Piccadilly, Hyde Park Corner, Gloucester Road, the Hammersmith Flyover, Cromwell Road, Chiswick Bridge, Sheen, Richmond Park, and Kingston. It will then head into Surrey going through Walton on Thames, Weybridge, Newlands Corner, Holmbury St Mary, Leith Hill, Dorking, Box Hill, Leatherhead, Cobham and Esher. On the return trip the route goes via Kingston to Wimbledon, Putney High Street, Putney Bridge, New Kings Road, Chelsea Embankment, Millbank and Whitehall, before finishing on The Mall.

 

Road and river crossing closures – Sunday 4 August

There will be a large number of road closures around the route from early morning on 4 August to make sure the route is secure and ready for the 100 mile cycling event. These will include, but are not limited to, the A12, Limehouse Link Tunnel, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Underpass and the A4. 

 

River crossings and roads closed to traffic but not pedestrians on Sunday 4 August include:

-        Blackwall Tunnel / A12 southbound – closed from 01:00, for regular maintenance work followed by the event preparation, to approximately 09:00

-        A12 northbound from A13 – closed from 05:00 to approximately 09:00

-        A13 eastbound & westbound from A12 to Leamouth Road – closed from 05:00 to approximately 09:00

-        Tower Bridge and Southwark Bridge – closed from 04:00 to approximately 15:15

-        Westminster Bridge, Lambeth Bridge and Vauxhall Bridge closed from 05:00 to after 19:30

-        Chelsea Bridge, Albert Bridge and Putney Bridge – closed from 05:00 to after 19:15

-        Chiswick Bridge – closed from 05:00 to after 14:30

-        Kingston Bridge – closed from 05:00 to after 19:15

-        Hampton Court Bridge – closed from 05:00. Open from 15:30 northbound and 19:00 southbound.

The following river crossings will remain open throughout the day to road traffic:

-        Blackwall Tunnel northbound will remain open throughout the event with access to the A13 westbound and diversions to allow traffic to travel north

-        Rotherhithe Tunnel, London Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge and Waterloo Bridge will all remain open

-        Wandsworth Bridge, Kew Bridge, Twickenham Bridge and Richmond Bridge will all remain open

Taxi ranks

Where possible we’ve tried to minimise the impact on taxi ranks but some disruption is unavoidable on Sunday when the race route stretches across the capital. Areas where ranks will be affected include:

-        Stratford: on Sunday cyclists taking part in the London-Surrey 100 will leave the Olympic Park between 06:00 and 08:00 with the riders competing in the London-Surrey Classic setting off at 12:45

-        Millbank: the St James’s Street ranks and the Pall Mall (RAC Club) rank will not be available on Sunday because of the road closures in place.

-        Brompton Road: the Harrods and Mandarin Oriental ranks will be unavailable because of the road closures in place but Harrods will have staff available to provide assistance to the public who want to use a taxi. The Hans Crescent and Basil Street ranks will still be available but the direction of traffic in Hans Road will be reversed.  

-        Cromwell Road: the Victoria and Albert Museum rank will be unavailable because of the road closures in place.

-        Thurloe Place and Cheyne Walk ranks will be suspended on the Sunday.

-        Kingston Town Centre: the ranks will be suspended as the race route goes through the town centre but a temporary rank has been appointed in Ashdown Road. The late night marshalled rank will operate as normal on Saturday evening.

-        High Street Putney: the rank will be unavailable because of the road closure in place but the rank in Upper Richmond Road (near The Fez club) will operate all day on Sunday

More information about RideLondon can be found here.

Taxi Ranks Update

North Greenwich Station taxi rank – relocation on Monday 5 August

Some essential works must be carried out in the area where the North Greenwich Station taxi rank is situated therefore as a consequence during August the area will closed and the taxi rank temporarily relocated.

 

August has been chosen as the time to carry out these essential works as there are fewer events taking place at The O2. 

 

We are working closely with AEG and colleagues in TfL to manage the temporary relocation and make sure there are clear and direct signs to show people where the temporary taxi rank will be situated.

 

 

The temporary taxi rank will be in the area used by taxis during the 2012 Games, which is normally used as the private hire pick-up area after events. For larger events the coach area will be used for taxis to provide more space for drivers and passengers.

 

The rank will be relocated from 07:00 on Monday 5 August until the end of August. Drivers should follow the updated taxi markings on the road when ranking at the station.

Grosvenor Gardens refreshment shelter rank changes

From Monday 5 August 2013 there will be some changes to the Grosvenor Gardens refreshment shelter rank.

The new rank will be in three portions and the details are below:

-        1st portion – Grosvenor Gardens, for 6 taxis and taxis should rank facing north west

-        2nd portion – Grosvenor Gardens – outside number 2 Grosvenor Gardens, for 2 taxis and taxis should rank facing north west

-        3rd portion – Hobart Place – on northern side of Lower Grosvenor Gardens/opposite Noura restaurant and taxis should rank facing east

The following rules regarding the refreshment shelter rank apply:

Only drivers using the refreshment shelter can park their taxi on the refreshment rank

Drivers can park their taxis on the rank for a maximum of 45 minutes

 

Tobacco Dock, 4 September 2013

On Wednesday 4 September a large corporate event is taking place at Tobacco Dock, 50 Porters Walk,  London, E1W 2SF. Approximately 3,000 people will be attending and there is expected to be a high demand for taxis.  

A temporary taxi rank has been set up for the event and this will be in the Tobacco Dock car park on level 6, access is via Pennington Street.

The event finishes at 23:00 but people are expected to start leaving before this and the rank will be marshalled by professional taxi marshals from 20:00.  

 

 

 

Press Release From The Save Earl's Court Campaign.

*Open Day*

Last week started with us having a table at the Friends of Brompton Cemetery Open Day. If you remember, they put up a fight against the Seagrave Road development. I attach a picture of artist

Duggie Fields who helped to man our table as we collected signatures for the Eric Pickles petition.

*Petition Handover*

We took our online and offline petitions to the Department for Communities and Local Government. A total of 5,907 signatures requesting that Eric Pickles call in the planning applications and hold a public inquiry regarding the demolition of the two council housing estates and the exhibition centres.

Here are pictures of our banners as residents from RBKC and LBHF stood together.  You can also see the petition handover by Linda Wade,  (Earl's Court Councillor, Lib Dem) and Andy Slaughter MP (Hammersmith, Labour) who also had letters for Eric Pickles, to a senior planning officer at the Department for Communities.

*Press*

We are in this weekend's edition of the Morning Star on page 5 and also in the local papers in LBHF and RBKC (26 July edition)

Motorists win landmark judgement against cash-strapped council which hiked parking charges as stealth tax to fund other services.

Barnet residents' parking permits soared up to 300 per cent in cost.

Now they have won ruling saying it is illegal for councils to use parking charges to raise money for other transport projects.

Motorists have won a landmark judgement after the High Court ruled it illegal for a cash-strapped council to hike parking charges as a revenue-raising stealth ‘tax’ to subsidise its other services.

Motoring groups said the ruling was ‘fantastic news’ which had major implications for millions of drivers because it would stop local authorities across the country ‘picking on drivers’ to fill their empty coffers by imposing similar illegal parking ‘taxes’.

A High Court judge ruled Barnet council in north London acted unlawfully when it increased the cost of residents' parking permits and visitor vouchers in controlled parking zones (CPZs) to raise revenue.

Objectors complained that the increases had made parking in Barnet's quiet residential streets 'more expensive than parking outside Harrods' and were ‘picking the pockets’ of residents'.

They argued that around 10 per cent of Barnet residents, who lived in CPZs, were heavily subsidising transport services for the whole borough and that the parking hikes were designed by the council to fund expenditure on road maintenance, subsised concessionary fares and other road transport costs.

Mrs Justice Lang  agreed, declaring at London's High Court that the 1984 Road Traffic Regulation Act ‘is not a fiscal measure and does not authorise the authority to use its powers to charge local residents for parking in order to raise surplus revenue for other transport purposes’.

The judge ruled that Barnet had misinterpreted the law when it concluded that it was lawful for the council 'to budget for a surplus (of parking charges) at any level which it considered appropriate in order to generate income for other transport purposes which it wished to fund.'

Residents in the borough had originally faced residential parking charges of £20 for a first car and 35p each for visitor vouchers.

Those charges were increased in 2006 to £40 and £1. But in 2011 they soared to £100 and £4 - among the highest controlled parking zone charges in London.

The ruling is believed by experts to be the first successful legal challenge against the level of parking charges set by a local authority. It could see thousands of Barnet residents reclaim millions of pounds in unlawfully collected charges.

More significantly it could lead to many more legal challenges and prevent similar actions. 

Professor Stephen Glaister is director of the RAC Foundation which had given evidence backing the residents. He said: ‘Our position has now been vindicated.

 

‘This is fantastic news for drivers. The law is explicit - parking charges are about managing congestion, not raising revenue.

'If there is a surplus collected then there are strict rules on what it can be used for. Why did Barnet ever think it had an arguable case to pick on one group of residents to shoulder an additional tax?’

Professor Glaister said he had some sympathy with cash-strapped councils, but added: ’But we have no sympathy for attempts to make up the shortfall by arbitrarily picking on drivers. That view has now been backed by the courts.

‘Councils thinking of turning to motorists to balance the books would do well to read the judgement and put their heads back below the parapet. This ruling will be felt by hundreds of local authorities and benefit millions of drivers.’

The ruling was achieved by the Barnet CPZ Action group, made up of residents from the borough, including solicitor David Attfield, who brought the lead case. 

Mr Attfield, from East Finchley, won the quashing of the council's decision in February 2011 to dramatically increase the charges with effect from April 2011. 

The judge rejected arguments put forward by council lawyers that it had powers under section 45 of the 1984 Act to raise a surplus from parking charges for transport functions.

There were no parking charges in Mr Attfield's quiet residential road until the Controlled-Parking Zone CPZ was first introduced in 2001 to prevent tube commuters parking in local streets.

The judge ordered the council to repay the parking charges unlawfully obtained from Mr Attfield, plus his legal costs, opening the way for other residents to seek their money back. 

The judge formally rejected Barnet's application to appeal against her ruling, but the council can still ask the Court of Appeal to hear the case. Mrs Justice Lang said her orders against Barnet would be stayed until the appeal court makes a decision.

Source: Daily Mail 

Redundancy payments for Olympic executives cost £2.8m

The financial reports of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) show 144 officials were paid a share of more than £2m ahead of the authority winding down in 2014.

Exit payments cost £2.8m in 2012-13, the Annual Report and Accounts said.

Chief executive Dennis Hone, made redundant in March, was paid £80,000 and had £373,000 paid into his pension.

An ODA spokesman said hiring the best people required many to give up secure long-term jobs elsewhere.

'Tough criteria'

The financial reports note that the chief executive was entitled to receive statutory redundancy pay and a terminal bonus equivalent to 60% of his salary as part of his employment rights.

It said: "The Remuneration Committee decided to award a terminal bonus of 49% of his salary and to defer 50% of the bonus until the successful completion of the sale of East Village to QDD."

Mr Hone was hired shortly after his redundancy as chief executive of the London Legacy Development Corporation.

An ODA spokesman said London 2012 had been a "unique and challenging project and a great British success story".

He said: "We needed to recruit and pay for the best talent from the private and public sectors, requiring people in many cases to give up secure long-term jobs elsewhere, with no certainty of the project's success or getting a job after the Games.

"The exit payments for staff other than Dennis Hone comprise only - and are limited to - statutory redundancy pay, any leave they were unable to take before their employment ended, and, where appropriate, payment in lieu of notice.

"Like other staff, Dennis Hone received performance related pay, but this was far from guaranteed and was measured against tough performance criteria."

On Friday, a report for the UK Trade and Investment department suggested the Olympics resulted in a £9.9bn boost for the economy.

Source: BBC News London.

Bogus taxi driver from Stoneleigh jailed for two years

A man who tried to pass himself off as a black cab driver has been jailed for two years.

Terence O’Leary, 51, of Stoneleigh Broadway, Epsom, was spotted in January driving a black cab in London with forged area identifiers - displayed on a sticker inside all black cabs with the licence details of the driver. 

He was arrested and police found a forged taxi driver licence and three forged taxi driver badges when they searched his home address.

While he was on bail, information was received by the police that O’Leary was trying to hire a taxi from a company using a licence that appeared to be forged and he was again arrested.

O’Leary, who has never been a licensed taxi driver, appeared at Kingston Crown Court earlier this month and was jailed for two years for nine offences under the Fraud Act.

The five-month investigation into the offences was led by the Met Police’s safer transport command (STC), in partnership with TfL’s taxi and private hire directorate (TPH).

Siwan Hayward, TfL's acting director of community safety, enforcement and policing, added: "Fraudulent activities that put the travelling public at risk or undermine the legitimate and law-abiding taxi trade will not be tolerated."

Putting The London Cab Back On Point

We believe our right to “ply for hire” is under threat. 

The current thinking of the Law Commission is to discard the concept of plying for hire and not to define it, to control Taxi numbers but not PHVs, and to provide legislation for Pedicabs to be licensed.

Here are the major issues urgently in need of redress:-

 

    * Plying for hire must be defined both in our favour and in statute.

    * Pedicabs and alike must never have the right to ply for hire or operate on the highway.

    * A managed growth of BOTH taxi and private hire trades is crucial for maintaining standards.

The RMT London Taxi Branch firmly believes that the status quo cannot continue if our future and the public’s safety are to be assured. However these current proposals could very well put us in a worse position, because by not defining plying for hire and repealing all our acts will make our current Hackney Carriage case law obsolete. The criminal offence of “illegally plying for hire” will cease to exist.

The 1998 London PHV Act along with policy derived through TfL`s interpretation of the law have failed to protect the cab trade`s hard earned right to ply for hire. Plying for hire allows a Taxi to be publicly hired. It is now time for the world class London Taxi to be fully integrated alongside the other publicly hired modes of transport within the capital. To be treated equally with buses, trains and trams and not in a second class way.

So ask yourself this question “Is this as good as it gets?

Register your support by texting

4Hire followed by your name and badge number to: - 60777

(Your details will be treated in confidence)

 

LEAVING LONDON ALONE IS NOT THE ANSWER - JOIN THE RMT TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE 

Palestra Diversions: Mid July-October.

There will be road closures & a diversion route around Palestra from mid-July to Oct for building works.

For map and more details go to http://ow.ly/d/1lwu

Diversion routes for Union Street one-way working Planned for 5 August – 5 September 2013