Wheelchair user moves 45 miles to book a taxi

Ian Lawson, 68, was unable to book a wheelchair accessible taxi while living in Whitby

A wheelchair user has moved 45 miles away from his home near Whitby after being unable to book accessible taxis.

Ian Lawson, who has Moto Neurone Disease (MND), said he had missed hospital and dental appointments due to poor transport links for wheelchair users in the area.

North Yorkshire Council has estimated there is a shortage of about 200 wheelchair accessible taxis in the area.

However, a proposal to update the its taxi licensing policy in order to boost the amount of accessible vehicles has not been approved for consultation.

Speaking to BBC Radio York, 68-year-old Mr Lawson said: "Despite being a wheelchair user for ten years, I have never been able to book a wheelchair taxi into Whitby.

"I recently moved to Northallerton in June, as the lack of wheelchair taxis and the very unreliable bus service into Whitby got me down last winter."

As a member of Whitby Disability Action Group he said others in the group as well as some visitors had had similar experiences.

Since moving to Northallerton from his village he said it was "so much easier" to travel.

"Three local taxi businesses have a wheelchair taxi and the bus services are reliable, so no more missed hospital and dental appointments," he said.

The council has already tried to offer incentives to make taxis more accessible to wheelchair users

As chairman of the Accessible Transport Group, Mr Lawson has been campaigning about the lack of accessible taxis for three years.

In an effort to address his concerns, the council has already waived licence fees and relaxed age limits for accessible vehicles.

However, the authority said the number of wheelchair taxis remained stable and had not increased.

A new proposal put before the council's general licensing and registration committee earlier, which would have meant all new hackney carriage applications must either be a wheelchair accessible vehicle or a zero emission vehicle from 1 April, 2025.

It went on to state that by 1 January, 2030, all existing vehicles would also have had to meet this criteria, allowing licence holders time to replace their vehicles.

However, the committee opted not to approve the proposal for consultation instead agreeing to establish a sub-group of the committee to consider the draft policies further, with a view to bringing a report back to the committee at a later date.

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