The Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers 25 The Grove, Latimer, Bucks HP5 1UE Tel/Fax: 01494 765922 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.hackneycarriagedriverscompany.com

An open statement to The Various Livery Companies of the City of

17th January 2017

Dear Friends,

RE: Bank Junction - Experimental Safety Scheme

As you may already be aware, there are proposals currently being considered by the Corporation of the to restrict vehicles, including licensed taxis, being granted access to Bank Junction across an area roughly bounded by , , London Wall and New Change/St Martins le Grand.

The Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers has had lots of contact, and concern, from our friends across the Livery about the impact of such restrictions and so I thought it would be helpful for us to share our views with you.

We believe that the exclusion of taxicabs from the Bank Junction is folly. There appears to be no consideration given to the movements and requirements of taxi passengers through, to or from this junction.

Unlike buses that travel at prescribed times and on prescribed routes a taxi is a demand responsive vehicle providing accessible door-to-door transport. Taxi drivers do not know where they are going to be required to go next and therefore are unable to position themselves on the appropriate side of the junction. Passengers will, as a consequence, be financially penalised by enforced diversions to reach their destination.

Taxi passengers are not only affluent, smartly dressed, city folk - much loved of advertisers, they are and can be the elderly, wheelchair users, parents with pushchairs and young children, Clerks burdened with files, ambulant disabled people, tourists with luggage, attendees of City functions in their finery and those seeking City facilities. Only taxis are in a position to accommodate such a variety of people.

The purpose-built London taxi achieves this by virtue of its special features including intermediate step, swivel rear seat, ramps to accommodate wheelchairs and pushchairs, high visibility trim and grab handles for the partially sighted and hearing aid loops for the hearing impaired. All these facilities are funded by the trade itself.

The new taxis, due next year, will be zero emission capable vehicles. If you add this to the driver’s Knowledge of London it is little wonder that the taxi is in the top three of London’s icons.

It is an icon that the Corporation should be extremely proud of, since it was they who created the industry by virtue of the Court of Aldermen’s Ordinance for the regulation of hackney coaches and coachmen dated 23rd June 1654 authorised by Cromwell. This is the first known licensing of any land passenger service in the world. The first 250 coachmen created the Fellowship of Master Hackney Coachmen, the inheritance of which Fellowship is the now Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers.

It was 175 years later in 1829 that the first horse-drawn bus was to be seen at the Bank Junction.

During the 362 years of the hackney carriage being licensed they have been involved in a multitude of events that have benefitted the City. The taxi trade throughout this period has been mindful and grateful for the regulations that have evolved from the original 1654 Act, two of which are of particular interest: i) The driver is to take the most expeditious route,; hence the development of the Knowledge of London’s examinations and trade’s inherent desire to take people by the most direct route, which is obviously potentially injured by the closure of the Bank Junction. ii) The driver is allowed to ply for hire in any public place within the licensing area. This element is tending to be ignored or pushed aside by the proposed restrictions.

Should the proposals be pushed through, access for those who live or work in the following areas would be restricted by taxi: Mansion House, , EC4N City of London Magistrates Court, 1 Queen Victoria Street, EC4N Bank Junction Underground Station, Princes Street, EC3V, One Lombard Street Brasserie, 1 Lombard Street, EC3V, Coq D’Argent Restaurant, 1 Poultry, EC2R and a multitude of Livery Halls, Hotels, and major institutions.

Given the above, we, The Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers, have formally written to the Corporation of the City of London requesting that serious re- consideration be given for the banning of taxis within the proposed Bank Junction improvements. We would argue that the diversity of taxi passengers, in particular those with physical or sensory impairments, deserve no less consideration than bus passengers.

Yours sincerely

Alan Roughan

Master The Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers