Senior councillors speak out against mandatory CCTV in taxis

Watch Senior councillors speak out against mandatory CCTV in taxis - Peterborough Telegraph on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00four, five, six, seven, eight, nine speakers so far and I'll take them in the order that we wrote

00:05them down. Councillor Kayeum first then please. Thank you Mr Deputy Mayor. I'd just like to say

00:11that I'm one of those professionals who conducts the taxi medicals for the drivers in the city.

00:18I've conducted my own audit and over this period of time over the last year since I've actually

00:24started to conduct these medicals 335 taxi medicals have been completed by myself of which

00:30280 have gone to other authorities. The majority of them citing disagreement with the CCTV proposals

00:37including reasons being the cost of living crisis, the fact that there's a level of inflexibility

00:44in the proposals and I resonate with those thoughts as well whilst I'd also like to be

00:49a voice of reason in this debate and I understand an awful lot of work has gone into it. I'd also

00:54like to remind members over here that the initial committee was cross-party and it wasn't simply a

01:01political decision. It was a decision that was made by a statutory committee. That's the first

01:06thing I'd like to say. The second thing I'd like to say is that I was at an operators event yesterday

01:13that was the launch of female drivers being recruited in the city and I found that really

01:19heartwarming. It was a way of empowering women to earn a living, help their families and for those

01:26of our guests that are here today in terms of that voice of reason I'd also like us all to think about

01:31their safety. So I agree with the third proposal whereby we lobby government to make this

01:38standardized across the country simply because of the fact that I feel that it's a disadvantage to

01:44our drivers here in the city that they'll go to other authorities and be able to operate here in

01:50the city anyway without CCTV mandated. It's much more better to have consistency across the board

01:58and I know that they agree with that as well and looking at the proposals I believe that a level of

02:03flexibility needs to be offered if that is possible. So that's all I'd like to say. Thank you very much.

02:10Thank you very much. I'll remind members you've got up to three minutes but of course

02:13just as councillor Calum there don't take it if you don't need it. Let's be succinct if we can.

02:19Councillor Jamil you're next. Thank you very much Mr Deputy Mayor. Like my colleague I have issues

02:26with recommendations one and two but I fully support recommendation three. Now a lot of the

02:33taxi drivers are residents in my ward and I've listened to what they've said. Now these are the

02:39people who are going to be affected and they're going to be affected in a way where they're

02:44coming out of Covid just about recovering and then we're having to hit them with this. Now they can

02:50say that it's being imposed on them, they've tried talking to our officers, negotiations have

02:57happened and then we're implementing or asking them to implement a scheme that they don't want

03:02to be a part of. Now part of the problem here is that we're almost introducing a two-tier system

03:10where we are telling our drivers to do one thing yet you can go and get your plate in Rutland or

03:16in Huntington or even as far away as Wolverhampton and come and work in the city and the rules aren't

03:22as stringent as you. That's not really fair. That's why we're asking for recommendation three here

03:28only where the government sets a level playing field for all taxi drivers and therefore

03:36we can move on from that. So if everyone is fighting under the same rules then I would say

03:40we can move forward.