COUNCILLORS have claimed Bradford’s taxi industry have been ignored when drawing up the District’s Clean Air Zone proposals.

Bradford Council will introduce a Clean Air Zone in January - meaning the most polluting vehicles will be charged to enter the city centre and areas of Shipley.

Although private cars will be exempt, HGVs, vans and taxis will all have to meet certain emission standards if they want to avoid paying a daily charge (up to £50 per day for HGVs and £12.50 per day for taxis).

At a meeting of the Council’s Regulatory and Appeals Committee on Thursday Councillors and officers got into a heated and at times fiery discussion about how much taxi drivers had been consulted on the plans.

And the debate led to a decision that will add more uncertainty for taxi and private hire drivers as to what cars they can upgrade to.

The decision on the Clean Air Zone has already been made by the Council’s Executive.

The committee were due to vote through a relatively mundane aspect of the plans.

Bradford Council had been ordered to reduce its illegally high air pollution levels by the Government, and it was decided a Clean Air Zone was the fastest way to achieve this.

Government has supported the CAZ, and will provide around £31m for grants to the owners of polluting vehicles to help them upgrade.

This includes £10m set aside for taxis and private hire vehicles.

Bradford's Clean Air Zone to be introduced in January

Private hire drivers could get grants of up to £3,200 and Hackney Carriage drivers would get up to £4,000.

At Thursday’s meeting members were due to vote through changes to the current taxi licensing system. This included increasing the amount of time drivers are able to run CAZ compliant vehicles to 15 years, rather than 10 years.

Andrew Whittles, programme manager, told members that the amount of money being offered to taxi drivers to upgrade their vehicles was much higher than other cities. pointing out that when a CAZ was planned in Leeds taxi drivers would have been given grants of just £1,500.

The meeting heard that other cities were introducing Clean Air Zones, with Bath’s due to go live on Monday and Sheffield’s being implemented at a similar time to Bradford.

Although Leeds’ planned CAZ was halted last year due to falling pollution levels in lockdown, Mr Whittles said: “It is highly likely that Leeds will have to bring the scheme back in, as levels are rising to the legal limits.”

He said extending the period where drivers can operate their compliant vehicles would give them a greater assurance that the investment in a new vehicles was worth it.

Kamran Hussain (Lab, Toller) said he supported the Clean Air Zone, but added: “If there is a taxi driver in Silsden who has one journey into the city centre a day, that means they have to pay out £12.50.”

He also seemed to question whether a consultation with taxi drivers had ever happened.

Councillor Zafar Ali (Cons, Keighley Central) said: “Hackney Carriage drivers in Keighley are concerned by this extra burden. Some say they will quit the business this year.”

Mr Whittles said if the Council exempted too many vehicles, it would be sending out a message that the Authority would still be willing to allow polluting vehicles to operate.

Councillor Mohammed Amran (Lab, Heaton) said he felt the grant available to taxi drivers was “very low.”

He said there had been little engagement with taxi drivers about these plans, saying: “It is not acceptable. You never inform us Councillors. We could have got the message out to taxi drivers.

“I say this all the time and I feel it just goes in one ear and comes out the other.”

He said while he understood that the Council had to meet pollution targets, he did not feel taxi drivers could afford to upgrade their vehicles, even with a £3,200 grant.

Mr Whittles said the team regularly spoke with taxi drivers, had sent text messages to all taxi drivers informing them of the consultation, and placed posters at all private hire offices. He said the consultation was carried out to the “Nth degree” but it was beyond their control over whether taxi drivers took part.

Cllr Amran questioned why there were no taxi drivers at the meeting.

Carol Stos, Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Manager, said the meeting’s agenda was in the public domain, but apologised for not personally inviting representatives from the trade to the meeting.

The three Councillors suggested the decision be deferred until a future meeting, when taxi representatives are in attendance.

Mr Whittles pointed out that the Clean Air Zone was still going ahead, and the grants process would soon begin.

He said: “Deferring this decision will just mean that taxi drivers won’t be as sure as to what vehicles they will be able to apply for. The zone will go ahead, it just means for now taxi drivers won’t know which vehicle they can buy.”

Despite this warning the committee voted to defer the decision to a future meeting, which members heard would not likely be held for several weeks.