Thousands set to be affected as more than 100 'angry' taxi drivers in Northampton set to strike against council's new rules

Thousands of people are going to be affected as hundreds of ‘angry’ taxi drivers are set to resume STRIKE action against the council.

The App Drivers and Couriers Union (ADCU) – which represents private hire drivers and Hackney Carriage drivers – has criticised West Northants Council’s (WNC) Draft Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Policy 2023, which is currently out for public consultation until April 23.

The council says the new policy focuses on improving driver standards; strengthening the "fit and proper person" test; a more rigorous convictions policy; mandatory safeguarding training; spoken English testing; and driving standards training.

However the ADCU is strongly against the new rules, saying that have not been properly consulted when WNC drafted the 150-page legislation. And, ‘after consulting with all stakeholders’, the ADCU has decided to go on strike from March 22 until the end of the consultation period (April 23).

The strikes

Here’s how the ADCU will be striking in Northampton for the next month.

• From March 22 until April 23, there will be a two hour daily strike between 7 and 9pm
• If the council doesn't start ‘serious talks’ before March 31, the ADCU says it will be calling a series of whole day strikes, which will impact school and social runs
• Further strikes will be called ‘depending on the seriousness of the council’
• An ADCU spokesman said: “We are urging all Hackney and Private Hire drivers to go on a daily strike of two hours between 7 and 9pm at this stage.”

‘We know the public will be affected and we can only apologise for that’

Speaking to Chron and Echo, Shafqat Shah, Northampton Chair of ADCU, explained the ADCU’s motives.

He said: “We have decided to go on strike with limited disruption to the services and public to start with and also provide WNC with the opportunity to start serious negotiations during the consultation period.

"They are just paying us lip service [with this consultation]. We have seen this before with consultations where WNC get through what they want anyway. Our action plan is, why wait for this consultation period to finish before going on strike? We are putting pressure on them prior to the end of this period.

"We feel so strongly. We have to do something. We have drivers who are angry and want to strike straight away for 24 hours. But as a responsible union we don’t want to hurt the drivers or the public, we believe it’s better to start with the two hour strikes.

"We want a proper one-to-one with WNC. We don’t want this new legislation coming our way. We have seen the damage of rule changes that have happened in other cities such as Nottingham, Leeds and Wakefield.

"We don’t want this documentation. We want the council to sit with us. If it’s my livelihood then I should be consulted before this documentation is written up.”

If WNC fails to enter ‘serious talks’ with the ADCU, Mr Shah says the union will up the ante.

He said: “We will then be targeting the school runs. There are a lot of school runs. We won’t be taking any children to school.”

When asked if he would like to address the affected public, Mr Shah said: “This documentation has nothing to do with public safety. This is what we want the public to be aware of. It’s about making our lives harder. We want to work with WNC to resolve this.

"We know the public will be affected and we can only apologise for that.”

WNC response

Cllr David Smith, cabinet member for regulatory services outlined the council’s position.

He said: “WNC has made the decision to extend the consultation on the Draft Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Policy 2023 by a further four weeks while further engagement work is undertaken to seek views on the proposals. The consultation will now be open until Sunday 23 April.

“The proposed policy will supersede current policies for the areas of Daventry, Northampton, and South Northants and sets out the driver, vehicle, and operator standards for Hackney Carriages and private hire licensing for current licence holders and all new licence applicants.

“The ADCU have communicated that they will be undertaking two-hour daily strikes regarding the proposals. We are working with representatives to listen and respond to their views and encouraging people to have their say on the proposals through the consultation hub.

“Pre-engagement work has been undertaken with local licenced drivers and operators and we have also been working with the Police as we look to develop a new safeguarding assessment.”