Our first AGM in the Lifehouse. A chance to look back over the last 12 months and look at the focus of the next 12 months to be active for wheelchair users during the Liverpool European City of Culture 2008, to take on the challenge, to make a difference to your area, your City, your support services.
Committee from July 2008
Chair -Deb Lynch
Secretary-John Bruce
Treasurer- Alma Lunt
other committee members- Jean Price, John Austin
look ing forward to seeing you hearing from you in 2008,
2008 Liverpool European City of Accessible ? Culture.
If you have problems or challenges with access, let us know. contact us on lwug@hotmail.co.uk
Lets see if together we can make it a celebration of a more Accessible City in terms of facilities and attitudes by 2009.
Monday 7th January 2008 12.30pm
Lifehouse-
Monday 11th February 2008 12.30pm
Lifehouse-
Monday 10th March 2008 12.30pm
Lifehouse- Terry Dickman with presentation on Liverpool Disability Network
Monday 14th April 2008 12.30pm
Lifehouse
Monday 12th May 2008 12.30pm
Lifehouse
Monday 9th June 2008 12.30pm
Lifehouse- PATH planning event.What has been achieved in the last 12 months?What are the next challenges?
Monday 14th July 2008 12.30pm
Lifehouse
Monday 11th August 2008 12.30pm
Cancelled
Monday 8th September 2008 12.30pm
Lifehouse
Monday 13th October 200812.30pm
Lifehouse
Monday 10th November 2008 12.30pm
Lifehouse
Monday 8th December 2008 12.30pm
Lifehouse.
Chance for you to try out the latest Mercedes Vito Hackney Cab. Licensed in London, Manchester, what about Liverpool?
Put dates for 2009 in your diary
Monday 12th January 2009 12.30pm cancelled
Monday 9th February 2009 12.30pm
Monday 9th March 2009 12.30pm
Monday 6th April 2009 12.30pm
LWUG AGM Jean Price led a workshop and discussion on Housing Issues.
LWUG Committee from April 2009
Chair -Deb Lynch
Secretary-John Bruce
Treasurer- Alma Lunt
other committee members- Jean Price, John Austin, Pat Walls
Monday 4th May 2009 12.30pm cancelled as a bankholiday sorry for any inconvenience
Monday 15th June 2009 12.30pm
Monday 13th July 2009 12.30pm
Monday 21st September2009 12.30pm
Monday 19th October 2009 12.30pm
cancelled
Monday 16th November 2009 12.30pm
Monday 14th December 2009 12.30pm
2010
Monday 25th January 2010 12.30pm
Monday 22nd February 2010 12.30pm
Monday 22nd March 2010 12.30pm
Monday 19th April 2010 12.30pm
Monday 17th May 2010 12.30pm Monday 14th June 2010 12.30pm
Even if you cannot physically make a meeting, please get in contact. We would like to hear your ideas how we can be a stronger voice for wheelchair users across this City.Let us celebrate your achievements, support you in your challenges, enable you to make a difference in your street, your community. lwug@hotmail.co.uk
News
30th October 2009 News Release
Dismay for Disabled Community over Committee Delay
A long awaited breakthrough for wheelchair users in Liverpool has been put on hold due to a last minute challenge by a taxi maker, London Taxis International (LTI).
A long two year struggle to get Liverpool City Council to license a modern, more accessible hackney taxi, culminated in a High Court victory, in July this year supported even by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, for campaigner Alma Lunt.The Court found the Council guilty of a national landmark case of discrimination against local wheelchair users who cannot travel safely in the existing, London-style taxis, and ignoring their needs.
Recognising the force of the Court ruling, and the discrediting of previous expressed opinions without acceptable evidence, that sliding doors or removal of the outdated turning circle requirements would somehow compromise safety, Head of Licensing, Jill Newell has now recommended that the Council should welcome the Peugeot E7 taxi in Liverpool.The Council’s Licensing Committee was due to take a final decision last week – only to be blocked by a last-minute protest from LTI, which makes and sells all the taxis currently allowed in Liverpool.
After campaigning and pleading for the widely used Peugeot E7 cab design, which trials found to be the best multipurpose cab available for wheelchair access, members of Liverpool Wheelchair User Group (LWUG) and other groups around Liverpool were ready to celebrate when the Taxi Licensing Committee met on Thursday 22nd October.
But excitement turned to shock across the City, when news spread of the last minute intervention. Disability campaigners are dismayed that the Committee immediately put the licensing of the E7 on hold with little explanation and are disgusted that the blatant commercial interests of a company have been put before the transport and safety needs of local wheelchair users.
Jean Price who attended the High Court in July described the mood as: “shocked, and blocked for the moment, but still determined”.
Alma Lunt treasurer of LWUG said:“We had to go all the way to the High Court in July to get our needs listened to, but now LTI – out of pure commercial interest - is trying to rob us of the rights confirmed by the Court ruling.”
John Bruce LWUG Secretary said ” All we want is choice, choice for greater accessibility. LTI might not like the idea of having competitors for selling their own taxis in Liverpool but cabbies will still have opportunity to carry on buying and using the TX traditional London cabs, when the E7 is finally licensed, if they wish”
“We were deeply shocked and angry at this last minute threatening letter from LTI”, added John. “LTI advisers, from this taxi supplier have not only had every opportunity for the last 2 years, but were even seen ‘sitting on the shoulder’ of the City Council Legal Team during the High Court case. It is clear that LTI are simply hoping to cling on to their market in Liverpool, by preventing the sale of another make of cab – despite the fact that the E7 is already successfully and safely in use across 95% of other towns and cities of the UK.”
Frank Andison, Secretary of ACSIL, the Liverpool amputee support group, lives close to the Knowsley border. “I have to get my niece to book a Peugeot E7 from there so I can travel safely, until Liverpool has its own E7s available.”
Despite their disappointment, campaigners hope their goal of better safe and accessible travel will shortly be realised.The Council was due to hear final comments from LTI on Wednesday, 28th October.Not only is LTI’s latest action a desperate attempt to keep the status quo, but leaves the City Council in breach both of the Disability Discrimination Act and the European Treaty until it implements changes to deal with the issues raised at the High Court.
Liverpool City Leaders have committed to finalise their decision as a matter of urgency.
London based TV presenter Lara Masters gives E7 taxi a gold star for access
'Personally, I am less worried that my cab can do a perfect pirouette than that it’s an accessible vehicle that can get me from A to B. Time for an uprising'- Lara Masters
At a cost of £470 million this may be needed but....
LWUG is writing to Derek Campbell CEO Liverpool PCT concerned there is no provision for an access consultant to work closely with the architects to ensure it is inclusive. Just promising to meet Part M of Building Regs is not enough.
The PCT have failed to demonstrate that Community Support Services,such as Social Workers, Direct payment schemes, therapists, nurses, equipment stores, wheelchair service have enough budget, staffing and working well together. This should be done before the Royal is 'signed off'.
June 2009 Accessible Taxi developments
Liverpool City Council will have to face the shame of Discrimination Charges in High Court
28th July 2009 is set to be ‘D’-Day for Liverpool City Council after the date was announced for a full hearing into charges that the Council has failed to meet its duties under the Disability Discrimination Act.
The case, to be heard at the High Court in London, centres on claims that the Council persists in blocking many wheelchair users from travelling safely in city taxis.
Alma Lunt is taking the action on behalf of many other disabled people across Liverpool.A coalition of local disability groups is campaigning to allow a new type of modern hackney cab that can safely accommodate many passengers with different needs and especially people needing space for larger wheelchairs.
Success Manufactured by wheelchair accessible vehicle specialists Allied Vehicles, the Peugeot E7 design has proved successful across 95% of the UK. Nottingham is only the latest city to approve the Peugeot E7 cab , which is also welcomed in every Merseyside borough, except Liverpool.The hackney-style cab is equipped with a shallow under-floor ramp, easy access step, high-visibility grab-handles and – crucially - a larger, level passenger area floor than is available in the traditional ‘London-style’ cab.
Facing disability discrimination charges in the High Court represents a major embarrassment for the City Council.Local disability groups, however, are deeply disappointed that it has proved necessary to pursue this test case in order to get the Council to listen to their views.
John Bruce, Secretary of Liverpool Wheelchair User Group, commented:“Despite its legal requirements to consult and consider the needs of local communities, the sad fact is that our own Council makes promises andCouncil leaders sign big publicdocuments about reducing barriers, but has bizarrely refused to listen to local disabled people on what is a crucial, safety-related issue which affectsthe lives of a great many local wheelchair users, and which won’t even cost the Council a penny. We all need some answers to the question why!
“Licensing the new-style cab simply gives a choice of vehicle to drivers”, continued John.“We have many great cabbies in Liverpool and we want to look after them better, with the choice of a vehicle with more space inside.The wheelchair ramp in tests has a shallower gradient, meaning less strain on the driver as well as less bumping and manoeuvring for a disabled person who needs to remain in their own chair when travelling.”
Wheelchair user Jean Price, of MCIL added: “We continue to explain our case, and won’t and can’t go away, as we have no alternative apart from staying marooned at home or travelling unsafely.
“At present many people with larger wheelchairs have to be left sideways, scarily unsecured when travelling in the smaller traditional London cabs.Whilst we would welcome a proposed new Mercedes cab on the streets of Liverpool, which we understand may come before the Licensing Committee soon, it unfortunately has little more wheelchair manoeuvring space to offer than the traditional London Cab.”
April 2009- Warmer weather is coming . Tell us about the places you go or want to go. How do you rate the accessibility? Let us know.
Nottingham sees sense and licenses E7
London, Manchester, Liverpool, Peterborough and Norwich. Last remaining Council licensing committees to still ignore the research and the evidence of shortcomings of smaller traditional taxis and still block modern taxis such as the E7 as a valuable vehicle that safely accomodates larger wheelchairs -
22nd October 2009 10am Millenium House, Liverpool. The Licensing Committee meets to consider a recommendation from the Licensing Team who now recommend the Peugeot E7 as a suitable Hackney Cab.
8th September 2009 Liverpool City Council accept the High Court verdict and will not appeal against any of the Justice Blakes judgements.
The way ahead now is a fresh impact assessment and re consideration of the E7, as a safe reliable multi purpose cab design for the wider public, already in use across 95% of the UK, and a substantial contribution to the streets of liverpool especially for many with larger wheelchairs, unable to travel safely in current fleet made up of traditional London Cabs.
31st July 2009 Landmark Judgement won in High Court
Questions must surely be asked when Liverpool City Leaders, key Councillors, Officers and Solicitors are told to get their house in order and presented with the total legal Bill of an estmated £200,000 upwards.
Jean Price and Alma Lunt only travelled down to the High Court in London after getting nowhere with requesting time and again proper consultation, and practical evaluation of vehicles.
Questions must be asked about why our Council supposedly Committed to removing barriers and challenging discrimination ends up with a shameful court action and costs
Judge Justice Blake in the London High Court found in our favour on every point of our case!!!!!!!
The Case had been brought against Liverpool City Council LCC, with Alma Lunt, treasurer of Liverpool Wheelchair User Group, and co chair of MCIL, as the named person.
The Judge found
·discrimination by Liverpool City Council had taken place under the Disability Equality Duty 2006, and had failed to take reasonable and practicable steps to meet the need that had been clearly identified to them
·In spite of Liverpool’s protestations and denials, that there was clear evidence that there were wheelchair users who were unable to safely travel using the existing taxi fleet in Liverpool .
·That there was evidence that the Peugeot E7 taxi presented a positive benefit -of safe accessible travel, especially to many people with larger wheelchairs
·That Liverpool CC had not presented an evidential basis for their objections to the E7.
So………….
The Judge cannot order Liverpool to stop messing about and license the E7…. But .....................
This should pave the way to re consideration on a proper evidential basis of the licensing of any vehicle , but especially the Peugeot E7 , already successfully licensed round 95% of the UK as a safe reliable taxi with a great contribution to assessible travel, especially for larger wheelchair users.
Once the E7, or any cab is licensed by the City Council,
Cab owners and operators are then free to purchase and put the E7 on our roads, to our benefit for safer travel for many.
TheE7 is already making a difference in Knowsley where they were licensed for the first time only August 2008.
We also hope this is a wake up call for commitment to better consultation and partnership around the City and across the UK.
·More details to follow – the final written judgement does not come out till September 2009!
( June 2009 ) National MENCAP supports Changing Places campaign across the UK with events and media articles. In Liverpool we have a firm promise of a Changing Place in the new Liverpool Museum . Where would help you or people you know?
How accessible are Liverpool based airlines?
(Sept 2007) Bill Shorthall our previous LWUG treasurer was recently interviewed very early in the morning by Radio Merseyside at John Lennon Airport. Thanks for your early morning dedication Bill!
Peugeot E7 taxi available in our City?
July 2009
Lara Masters , writer and TV presenter, gives a gold star to the E7 for access.
acknowledgements to Disability Now Magazine for this extract
'I had mixed feelings when asked to review this new electric taxi, because in the last nine years I have developed an uncharacteristically venomous hatred of cabs. Since living in Willesden Green, north-west London, about five minutes from Notting Hill, I have never been able to get a taxi to collect me from home when using my Taxicard. Apparently, living in the suburbs is even more of a disability than using a wheelchair.
With professional stoicism, I refused to let my negative experiences cloud my judgement of the Allied Vehicles ZEV (Zero Emission Vehicle) E7, a conversion of the Peugeot Expert. This electric taxi doesn’t look like a traditional black cab; it’s larger, squarer and more spacious inside, like a people-carrier but with the usual seat formation and partition between driver and passengers.
The single ramp, which pulls out from underneath the vehicle, is large and wide but mercifully easy to manoeuvre, and feels sturdy, so there is no need for 20 minutes of “a little bit left, a little bit right” while you wobble up two precariously-placed narrow ramps, fearing for your life and watching the taxi meter hurtle towards your allowance limit.
Once inside, there is enough room for a large wheelchair to turn to face the back and an impressive array of straps secures you firmly into place. If you are into bondage, this will be a highlight.
The electric taxi produces no carbon dioxide emissions (black taxis are responsible for four per cent of the capital’s total emissions). Of course, much as I love to know my taxi is cost-efficient and will help ensure our world won’t be extinguished by a cloud of pollution, what I’m really interested in is that it’s perfectly accessible!
My excitement abated when I found that it doesn’t look as if wheelchair-using Londoners or Liverpudlians will be able to use these revolutionary taxis any time soon.
Even though the same model in its diesel form is successfully in use in cities such as Edinburgh, Leeds, Newcastle and Birmingham, councils in London and Liverpool have raised objections to the E7 being included in their fleet because its “turning circle” is too big.
Personally, I am less worried that my cab can do a perfect pirouette than that it’s an accessible vehicle that can get me from A to B. Time for an uprising.'
December 2008- Liverpool City Leaders have presented their unbelievable case through their Solicitors.
The basics of the case is the application of amazing logic.
A vehicle manufacturing company ,Lti have produced the Traditional London Taxi TX designs for many years and describe it as ‘wheelchair accessible’. LWUG is happily on record of appreciating the introduction of many innovative access features over its long history and that it meets the needs of quite a few people.
Liverpool Licensing Committee, presumably with the guidance of their solicitors, have decided that when concerns have been raised about safely accommodating people using larger wheelchairs in the only vehicle design currently licensed in our City, that their response would be not to look for up to date studies or even commission their own research, but to look at the brochures produced by LTi and as it uses the phrase ,’wheelchair accessible’ then it is….Wheelchair Accessible.
Not even LTI would claim that in 2008 with the vast range of wheelchairs in use, many larger, that the TX design could accommodate all and every chair design.
Yet Liverpool Licensing Committee have apparently applied logic and as the LTi brochures write ‘Wheelchair Accessible’, then all and every wheelchair can be accommodated, without exception.
THEREFORE YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE A PROBLEM!
THEREFORE YOU CANNOT HAVE A PROBLEM! AND IF YOU DO YOU YOU ARE BEING FUSSY AND basically MAKING IT UP!
You would think that if people were having difficulty with safe accessible travel in the only vehicle design on the streets, then a responsible Council would try to find out more .
LWUG , MCIL and other individuals and representative groups, to the best of our knowledge have yet to be invited to a single meeting to hear our concerns, in spite of recording in writing many times of unsafe and dangerous experiences for wheelchair users when using hackney cabs in our City streets.
We have had to invite ourselves and knock hard on the Committee door.
We thought once our Council Officers and Councillors realised it wasn’t a question of us asking for a little bit more comfort, but real and dangerous issues of safety, then we would have an opportunity to explain.
Instead we have a letter hundreds of pages long through the Solicitors for Liverpool presumably at vast expense, expressing pretty much that they didn’t realise we were talking about safety all the time, and to be honest they weren’t interested in hearing about our safety anyway! because the established traditional London cab is 'wheelchair accessible', as the brochure says and a modern multi million pound budget council doesn't need to do much more than read it out from the brochure.
Why is our message about safety of many wheelchair users, trying to travel round Liverpool So inconvenient for the licensing committee?
Is there something they know that we don’t?
October 2008 Liverpool’s wheelchair users have been granted the right to challenge their Council’s discriminatory licensing policy in a judicial review test case.
High Court Judge Sir Michael Harrison ordered a full hearing of the case in Early Spring 2009.
We hope the Licensing Committee will look again at how much merely allowing the licensing of this vehicle would mean to safety and ease of access for disabled people especially with larger wheelchairs.
Can Liverpool live with Choice?-Yes. Can the Taxi firms and garages of Liverpool live with Choice?-Yes. Just like most parts of the UK who sucessfully allow both the E7 and the London style cabs on the streets.
August 2008 Knowsley Council say yes to Choice in Taxis and licence the Peugeot E7.
Cab drivers refusing to help?
We have some great drivers in this City, but both MCIL and LWUG have had disturbing reports recently that some people using larger wheelchairs have suddenly been refused travel by their regular taxi firm. If you know anything more about this obscene development, please let us know ASAP
May 2008. Changing Place in Liverpool City Centre now open!
A Changing Place complete with overhead trackhoist, adjustable height changing table, just bring your own sling! is available in the Liverpool One Centre.For more info tel 0151 232 3140. or see national website http://www.changing-places.org
Shopmobility moves to amazing new home in Liverpool One Centre.
(see our Accessible Liverpool Page for more details.)
LWUG and Merseyside Coalition of Inclusive Living (MCIL) jointly support a campaign for Licensing of Peugeot E7taxi as a Hackney Carriage in Liverpool.
The familiar LTI TX London style 'Black Cab' is helpful for lots of people, but many wheelchair users are forced to travel sideways, unsecured and unsafe. The E7 taxi would be a major contribution to an accessible City and many taxi drivers we have spoken to would welcome them.
December 4th 2007 event at Lifehouse very successful, lots of positive comments as people tried out the E7 taxicab for themselves
Diversity in Taxis- a chance of Access for All? Why are we denied it by our Council and Councillors?
Denied by Council meeting Friday 28th March 2008. Chairman Malcolm Kelly and fellow Councillors chose to ignore the evidence and testimony of widespread danger and discomfort of wheelchair users, travelling sideways and unsecured in the London style cabs.
They accepted a 'picture painted at the meeting' of any modern cab style cabs like the E7 as.. juggernauts careering across the pavements of Liverpool in the hands of maniacs, with passengers jumping out dangerously all over the place unused to... sliding doors! Because of this, we are denied access by the Committee to an accessible taxi design that is in use succesfully and safely in large cities across the UK.
We will to continue to campaign and lobby ..because we have no alternative for safe travel. What has happened to inclusive transport planning and the DDA?
( October 2007) LWUG and MCIL are working together behind a campaign to allow the E7 design of taxi to be licensed in Liverpool as a Hackney Carriage
On Wed 31st October 2007, after lengthy postponements, the Licensing Committee heard the case , including Alma Lunt modelling in the E7 Taxi outside Millenium House! Submissions and reports were made by Alma Lunt and John Bruce. The decision has been deferred until the New Year.
It is simply the choice and opportunity to have use of a taxi design on our streets of Liverpool that will give many of us more space, ease of use, the opportunity to travel alongside several friends, and the option of travelling facing forwards. Is this too much to ask?
LIVERPOOL wheelchair users have been left bitterly disappointed by a council decision not to allow a new, more wheelchair-friendly taxi onto the city streets.
The decision to reject the adapted Peugeot E7 came in spite of pleas from many leading wheelchair-user groups, who say the traditional black cab is too small, difficult – and “unsafe” to use – with the majority of wheelchair users having to sit sideways without seatbelts and restraints.
They say that the new-style cab – already a big hit in most other local authorities across the country, including Sefton, St Helens and Wirral – would have provided wheelchair users with easier access and a safer, more comfortable option.
Wheelchair passengers would also have been able to sit facing the front of the vehicle and be properly secured.
A council spokesman said the licensing committee rejected the application by Glasgow-based Allied Vehicles because they felt that the vehicle’s sliding doors were difficult to operate and that other users might step out of the cab and into the road.
However, an irate John Bruce, chair of Liverpool Wheelchair User Group, who was at the meeting, said: “These vehicles are already being used very successfully and safely in most British cities.
“At the meeting, person after person stood up and painted a picture that allowing the Peugeot E7 as a choice would be unleashing a juggernaut in the hands of maniacs who would career all over the pavements, with people diving out recklessly, just because it is slightly longer and has sliding doors
“The E7’s bigger layout clearly allows quicker and easier access for wheelchair passengers and drivers, and by being properly secured, is much safer.
“We are not saying that we no longer want the traditional black cabs on our streets. All we want is for people to have a choice.
“Currently, we don’t – and many people are either forced to make unsafe and uncomfortable journeys or stay at home.”
“We all know, too, that sometimes cabbies simply ignore us when we try to flag them down on the streets. It is just too difficult trying to get us into their cabs.”
An independent study, submitted with the application, revealed that 96% of wheelchair users travelled sideways in black cabs – against Department of Transport guidelines – unsecured, without restraints or a seatbelt.
“What would happen if an accident happened and the wheelchair user was seriously injured? It really is frustrating,” said Mr Bruce.
“We know many cabbies who are in favour of this new vehicle, accessible for all, which is what Accessible Transport Plans and the Disability Discrimination Act are meant to be about.
“Having this alternative taxi makes sense for all commuters. The rest of the country can’t be wrong. We just can’t understand why it has been rejected in Liverpool.” Allied Vehicles, who had been told their bid had failed on Friday, are waiting to receive a full explanation from the council.
Watch this space for E7 news. LWUG and other groups will not give up , and continue to press our case.If you have an opinion let us know.
