With an ever-increasing elderly population and for the disabled in our community, there should be far more private hire taxis able to carry wheelchairs than there at the moment in the city (The Argus, November 23).
The GMB union wants Brighton and Hove City Council to train more drivers to get to grips with disabled-access vehicles and wants to see more of these vehicles.
A recent survey found only 126 hackney carriages out of 528 had disabled access. This is clearly not enough. It should be at least 50%.
All the city’s buses can now carry one wheelchair. I think the council should insist that more taxis are able to carry wheelchairs before issuing licences.
Wheelchair users do not get a good service with the survey showing that it has become worse. As it appears the council has so far not done anything to improve this situation, now is the time for it to act.
As more people phone for a taxi than use the ranks, I think it would pay private hire drivers to buy disabled-access vehicles. We don’t need to see more taxis. But we are quite clearly short of those able to carry wheelchairs.
Steve Fuller, Rowan Avenue, Hove
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