Mvn spring 2016

MountviewNews Gett submit bid to buy RadioTaxis See Page 4

Spring 2016

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: Time to Decide – The London Mayoral Election

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: 4 Gett Makes a Multimillion Pound Bid Geoffrey Riesel reveals the big Radio Taxis Deal 5 Roger Sligo’s ‘Ed Lines’ LBC Exposes Flaws in PHV Licensing etc.

8 Follow the London Mayoral Race Geoffrey Riesel on using Twitter to keep tabs on it all 10 EUROPE – Should I Stay or Should I Go? Roy Hughes views about the Eu and Brexit 11 Dear Mayoral Candidate...

Geoffrey Riesel writes a letter to all the candidates 14 How Credit Card Payments can help save London’s Taxis 16 The “Clean” Cab Conundrum Peter Gibson and the new battery-powered TX5 taxi 17 Taxi’ng Times Cartoon – Episode 9…

Terry the Cabbie – see how he casts his vote 18 Down Street Station – Churchill’s Secret War Rooms Roger Sligo goes underground somewhere in London 21 Digital Marketing – Business Essential or Irritating Hype? Robert Stead explains it 22 AUSTRALIAN OPEN Tennis Robert MacDonald Watson serves up yet another ace!

24 Full Stop!

Alan Franks on traffic jams, cycles and gridlock 25 The Radio Taxis Photo Contest Grab your camera – and make it snappy!

26 Light at the End of the Private Hire Regulatory Tunnel?

Geoffrey Riesel and the Private Hire Regulations Review 27 John Vigus’s Motorists’ Guide The Moving Traffic and Parking Regulations Book 28 The Life and Times of a Radio Taxis Shuttle Bus Driver Robert Dulin spills the beans!

30 Curiosity Corner Roger Sligo with more mysteries of hidden London 32 Mark Myers – Meet the Brain Roger Sligo reports on a TV show in the making 33 Southern Alarm Systems Roger Sligo interviews Steven Hall of SAS 34 Our Regular “Where Am I?” Contest Roger Sligo has £25 to give to a sharp-eyed cabbie 35 The Mountview Puzzler Page Grab a pen and get your little grey cells ticking over

THE MOUNTVIEW NEWS EDITORIAL TEAM IS: Roger Sligo – Editor & photos • Penny Cuckston – Administration Geoffrey Riesel & Peter Gibson – Board production Doug Canning – Graphic design, page layout, printing & distribution Graphics & Print: ©2016 • DC- Graphics • 0208 440 1155 • www.dc-graphics.co.uk Content: © 2016 • Mountview House Group Ltd • North London Business Park Oakleigh Road South • London • N11 1GN The information and images contained in this Newsletter are subject to copyright. Unauthorised use, disclosure or copying without prior written permission from Mountview House Group Ltd is strictly prohibited.

Confused?

All is revealed on page 18

Gett Makes a Multimillion Pound Bid for RadioTaxis GETT, the global on demand taxi app, has made an offer to the shareholders to acquire Mountview House Group – the company behind Radio Taxis – in a deal worth £6.5 million.

The deal, which is subject to shareholder approval, will make the London based global ground transport provider, which traces its history back to 1953, a subsidiary of Gett.

Geoffrey Riesel, Chairman & CEO of Mountview House Group said: “Our board unanimously supports the deal to become part of Gett. The future of the business as well as that of our drivers and clients is well served by becoming part of this exciting high tech brand, not least because of Gett’s world class mobile app.”

Geoffrey went on to say “I urge all of our shareholders to support this offer and send their vote back straight away. As I have said in the past, consolidation, within the industry, is the best way of fighting back against the likes of UBER” In London, the combination of Radio Taxis and Gett will give passengers access to around 11,500 taxis and their knowledgeable drivers.

The cash deal which will mean two payment trenches totalling around £2,400 per driver/shareholder, will see Gett – which started life in Tel Aviv in 2010 – bring its global driver total to more than 100,000.

Gett also operates in Israel, in Russia and in the USA and of course Mountview House Group provides its corporate clients with access to vehicles in almost every country worldwide.

Across the UK the combined business will connect its clients to around 50,000 vehicles.

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Left to Right: Alan Franks MVHG (Group Operations Director) Remo Gerber (MD Gett Western Europe), Geoffrey Riesel, David Wilkinson (Fieldfisher)

Remo Gerber, Managing Director of Gett in Western Europe said: “This is a great deal for the customers, for drivers and for employees in both companies, as it will enable us to grow both businesses globally, and particularly in our shared core market of London. The Mountview House Group has a long and proud history, with a particularly strong track record of delivering excellent customer service to its many high profile clients. Bringing this into the Gett family alongside our fantastic technology is going to make us a powerful global force.”

Gett’s revenues grew by 300% in 2015 to $300 million (£215 million) globally. Its clients already include half of the Fortune 500 companies around the world and to date it has raised more than $200 million (£142 million) in funding.

Looking at the Future Welcome to our first Mountview News publication of 2016. This should prove to be an exciting year ahead with the bid submitted to shareholders to buy Radio Taxis and with the London Mayoral Elections as well as the EU Referendum not to mention some of the changes to our trade.

From the second of April (I think they have avoided April Fool’s Day) we have the latest 20p increase on every journey to taxi fares, with drivers no longer being able to pass on to passengers, the cost of accepting card payments. Then from October this year, all taxis will have to comply with compulsory card acceptance with permanent chip and pin machines fitted in the passenger compartment. Luckily being with Radio Taxis we already have the appropriate machines fitted, but for many non-radio drivers they will need to shop around for the right equipment.

We will be looking at the contenders for the role of London mayor in this issue, who do we think will be better for our trade this time and who will do us no favours? I know that many of us (me included) do not live in the London area and therefore unable to vote, but we can still have the power of persuasion with some of our undecided passengers. Many people still look at taxi-drivers as a barometer for whichever London mayor they think will be best suitable for the job. But are we really in the know? After all both previous mayors’ could not do enough to gain our support before they were elected, only to forget us and our needs soon afterwards!

I think we can all agree, whichever party you might support, that Boris Johnson is leaving London with traffic jams the like of which we have never seen before. Anyone who thinks they can cut a road width in half while dishing out 700 PHV driver licenses each week, (currently standing at 100,000) just because UBER is flavour of the month with the government, does not properly understand the damage it is causing to London’s economy. Although TfL has managed to find plenty of money for road/cycle lane investments, such as the £25m spent on turning the Elephant and Castle into a two-way nightmare at the same time

Roger Sligo’s

NEWS banning a few left and right turns. It is making our lives a misery and costing us all money. The drivers I speak to blame the difficulties moving around town as much more of a threat to business than UBER is to our livelihoods.

LBC EXPOSES FLAWS IN PHV LICENSING An LBC (Leading Britain’s Conversation) investigation recently uncovered just how easy it is for illegal minicab drivers to operate in London while appearing to have an official Licence from Transport for London.

LBC’s Political Editor Theo Usherwood went to Transport for London’s NSL test centre at Heston with someone else’s car, someone else’s log book, someone else’s MOT and someone else’s social and domestic insurance not covered for Hire and Reward. But he still walked out with the private hire vehicle Licence, which gave him the PHV stickers proving the car is licensed for private hire work.

Mr Asherwood then parked the car on the side of the road near Bank Station and just waited.

Four separate passengers approached him and asked for him to take them home. The first to approach him was a man and woman, the man asked to be dropped off at London Bridge Station and afterward to take the woman on to Greenwich for £25. Once they were inside the car the reporter informed them he was in fact a journalist and not a licensed private hire driver without any DBS/CBR checks or insurance and asked them why they had approached him and got into his car – they said because they saw the stickers!

After the investigation, Nick Ferrari spoke to Peter Blake, Director of Service Operations for TfL Surface Transport. Mr Blake told LBC: “What you’ve done is

Mini cab licence

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highlighted an issue that relates to drivers, vehicles and operators being licensed separately, which is the current legal requirements we go through. We continue through our promotional campaign to explain to people please don’t get into a vehicle that is not pre-booked. It isn’t safe.”

Nick Ferrari pointed out that anyone wishing to avoid paying the £11.50 per day congestion charge could save themselves a lot of money over a year by simply getting a PH licence.

I have just recently heard from the TfL press office that they intend to tighten up on the insurance by making sure all PHV’s have hire and reward insurance at all times.

Incidentally our esteemed Chairman lobbied hard, back when PHV’s were licensed to stop them having any external stickers, which Geoffrey always maintained is a magnet for illegal plying for hire.

Geoffrey says he takes absolutely no pleasure in saying to TfL told you so!

SLIGO’S WISH LIST “Every day I look at the World from my window” sang the Kinks in their hit song Waterloo Sunset and for 25,000 of us taxi drivers this is exactly what we do every day from our front row London seats! Nobody has a better inkling than taxi-drivers as to what would free up the traffic just by some simple changes to the roads. I’m not going to grumble about the endless cycle superhighway squeezing us out of road space, as these have been self inflicted on us by a Mayor who wants to leave his footprint on London. Readers of Mountview News might recall the summer 2015 issue of “Ed Lines” where I made a mention of the legal parking bay along the Highway from Limehouse Link, where Lorries would always stop and rest causing two lanes going into one with tailbacks through to Canary Wharf.

My suggestion was to use the other parking bay a little further along where the road is wider and remains in two traffic lanes. I was informed recently by a driver that my suggestion has worked and now the first bay has been removed and hey presto the traffic jams gone!

Another gripe I had in E-View Magazine (www.eviewmagazine.com) last year was the zebra crossing at St Paul’s – Ludgate Hill, which caused tail backs all the way to Chancery Lane and Cannon Street in the other direction – my suggestion was to install a pelican crossing which has been done, the result is a much better flow of traffic. I have already listed a top ten of zebras that need to go, so for my wish list this time let’s look at some of the road layouts and issues.

Temple Place is a good place to start as this road is blessed with two crossings either side of Arundel Street – my wish list would be to reverse the one-way at Surrey Street going up to the Strand, which would avoid both pedestrian crossings at Arundel Street and also the traffic lights at the top with the Strand. At the moment very few cars use Surrey Street into Temple Place, most chose Arundel Street, so there would not

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be a problem changing this street’s one way direction.

BoJo wants to build his garden bridge where the green shelter is at Temple Place and to remove the shelter to Arundel Street. My suggestion would be to forget building a bridge here which is costly and will cause major disruption to traffic for a couple of years on both sides of the river during building works.

There is a perfectly good bridge, which because of road closures, leads nowhere; Southwark Bridge. My preferred wish would be to reopen Queen Street Place, Queen Street and King Street, which would make getting from south to north or north to south so much easier. Drivers who have been working for twenty years or more will remember how quick and popular these journeys into the city were. So after establishing that Southwark Bridge will only take you on a circular route to either Blackfriars or Tower Hill, we may just as well turf the bridge over, grow some flowers and trees, put in some tables and chairs for a nice picnic area and save millions of pounds in the process!

Another wish I’m sure we could all do with is toilets or port-a –loos sited at all of the taxi shelters (green huts) where stopping would be easy. I have already spoken with several shelter keepers who think it would be a great idea. It could have a minimal charge of say 20p – or for patrons of the shelter it could be free! I spoke a few years ago to John Mason when he was head of TPH – he said he would support my suggestion but it needed council planning permission in each borough where the shelter belonged!

My last wish for the time being is to make Trafalgar Square the traffic square it was designed to be.

Opening up the north side would save so much congestion in every direction. Remember the days when everything flowed well and getting to and from the Strand was not a problem. But what about the tourists who want to walk back and forth from the National Gallery I hear you say! Building an underground walkway is not beyond the wit of man.

Better still do what we did for years and let people cross the road at the traffic lights!

NEW KEEPER AT THE TEMPLE SHELTER Terence Arpino or Terry to his friends is the new proprietor of the Temple Shelter at Temple Place.

Terry, a former taxi driver for over 40 years has had a varied life as far as his occupations go. He has been a photographer, which is one reason he took up cabbing, so as to pursue his free-lance photographic work.

He had a commission from the Tourist Board for years.

He specialised in lenticular 3D underwater photography.

Previously he worked with his father who had his own café in Floral Street, Covent Garden, called the Opera Snack Bar. Terry and his brother left the café to complete The Knowledge, which he was doing part time while working for his dad.

Terry Arpino

When Terry began his photography work for the tourist board he would have to accompany the reporter, in those days the photographer just took the pictures, whereas today one person does it all.

Doing underwater photography he joined a diving club, staying with them for forty-years. He gave up his

badge about four years ago through ill health and with photography being a difficult market he is now reverting back to his former catering skills. He had his name down for a shelter for years and was thrilled when his chance finally arrived.

One of Terry’s shots The shelter exhibits some of his 3D photos and posters with his work. His work is also exhibited in some of the galleries and is a member of the British Society of Underwater photographers.

Terry’s Temple shelter is open from 6am until 6pm and he would be happy to see taxi-drivers for a chat about cabbing or about his photography work while you take a rest with him at the shelter.

Roger Sligo.

London Taxidrivers’Fund for Underprivileged Children EASTER COLLECTION Saturday 26th March, 2016

The London Taxidrivers’ Fund for Underprivileged Children was held at Sainsbury's (Low Hall), 11 Walthamstow Avenue, Chingford, E4 on Saturday 26th March with a cab dressed up as a large furry Easter Bunny.

Money was raised for our future events helping thousands of ‘special needs’ and underprivileged children in London and the surrounding areas.

We thank Sainsbury's for all their help and support.

Raymond Levy (Press Officer)

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Follow the Lond

by @radiotaxis_boss Making up your mind who to

London is now entering the final stages of the election process to choose a Mayor to represent the City from May 2016 until 2020.

The chosen candidate will have a huge role to play in the future of the London Taxi sector with so many issues to be resolved such as how to address the chronic congestion on London’s roads and addressing the unfair competitive advantage Uber have by riding roughshod over regulations designed to protect the public.

Elsewhere in this edition you will find coverage of the election.

In this feature we set out how you can engage directly with the

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campaign and its candidates.

Twitter is of course a good way for politicians to communicate directly with you the voters.

All of the main candidates for Mayor are now using twitter and as we get nearer the election date we can expect all the major news channels and political commentators to step up their tweeting about who will win the right to be Mayor and their manifesto offerings to secure your vote.

The following provides you with an introduction of some of the accounts you might find useful to follow on twitter as you make up your mind who to vote for as next Mayor of London.

Twitter Name

Twitter Account

Description

@ZacGoldsmith

Zac Goldsmith (Conservative Party Candidate)

MP for Richmond Park & North Kingston.

Conservative candidate for Mayor of London. #BackZac2016

@SadiqKhan

Sadiq Khan MP (Labour Party Candidate)

Member of Parliament for Tooting. Labour’s candidate for Mayor of London.

@prwhittle

Peter Whittle (UKIP Candidate)

@UKIP Candidate for London Mayor.

Culture Spokesman. Director of the New Culture Forum. Author.

@CarolinePidgeon

Caroline Pidgeon (Liberal Democrat Party Candidate)

Lib Dem Leader on the London Assembly.

Lib Dem London Mayoral Candidate 2016.

don Mayoral Race vote for as Mayor Twitter Name

Twitter Account

Description

@sianberry

Sian Berry

Green candidate for Mayor of London: http://sianberry.london.

Councillor for Highgate in Camden.

@standardnews

Evening Standard News

Breaking news and updates on top London stories from the newsdesk of the Evening Standard desk.

@joemurphylondon

Joe Murphy

Political Editor of the Evening Standard.

@londonelects

London Elects

Official tweets from London Elects, the team responsible for the 2016 Mayor of London and London Assembly elections.

Have your say – vote 5th May.

@BBCLondonNews

BBC London Newsroom

BBC London account managed by BBC Newsdesk. Not a 24/7 feed.

@MayorofLondon

Boris Johnson (current Mayor)

City Government for Greater London under the auspices of the Mayor of London.

@ken4london

Ken Livingstone

Radio presenter, former Mayor of London, member of Labour’s National Executive Committee.

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EUROPE – Should I Stay or Should I Go?

By Roy Hughes WHAT IS ‘BREXIT’?

A new breakfast cereal?

A drain cleaner? For those of you who might not know, it’s political short-hand speak for ‘British Exit from Europe’ – not all of Europe, just the EU affiliated bit. So what are the potential implications for our business for a ‘yes’ vote in June to exit the European Union?

The unlikely lads’ triumvirate of Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson and George Galloway would have you believe that an EU exit will be plain sailing for the good ship Britannia, with the economy unaffected and the rest of the world scrambling over each other to sign hugely advantageous unilateral free-trade deals. They might be right, after all who are we to argue with a man who thinks women are “worth less” than men; a man with hair that looks as if he’s been cutting it with garden shears and a man who once dressed up as a cat on a reality TV show.

In a poll of more than 100 economists for the Financial Times at the start of 2016, more than three-quarters thought Brexit would adversely affect the UK’s medium-term economic prospects.

Even temporary problems could take years to resolve.

Charlie Bean, former deputy governor of the Bank of England, says that if Britain did decide to leave, “the continuing uncertainty surrounding the terms of access of UK companies to the EU market mean that this dampening effect on investment could be expected to last for several years”. This would directly affect the financial services and banking sector more than most and HSBC for one, have already stated that a significant number of jobs and functions would be moved overseas. Replicated across the sector, this would obviously have a serious negative impact on our corporate business.

However, the economic bad news is unlikely to stop there. A difficult transition out of the EU could jeopardise Britain’s living standards. Michael Saunders, an economist at Citigroup, anticipates a series of three big shocks: “Worse export performance due to inferior EU access for business and financial

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services; lower potential growth and lower consumer spending from reduced migration inflows; and weaker investment growth, reflecting the above factors plus extra uncertainty.” This would hit the government budget, requiring higher taxes or lower public spending amid higher costs of financing the deficit, he adds. Any reduction of general living standards rarely leads to increased use of Taxis as a mode of transport.

In February after Boris had announced his intention to back the ‘Yes’ campaign (or if you are the deeply cynical type, his intention to run for the Tory leadership) and the mere sniff of a UK exit from the European Union, the pound dropped to a seven year low (at the height of the recession) against the US dollar of $1.40 and also suffered a decline against the Euro. A weaker pound, while good news for British exporters because it makes their goods cheaper in foreign markets and for tourists visiting the UK, is in other respects bad for our business. Imports become more expensive, increasing the price of essentials such as oil and replacement parts for vehicles.

Of course, politically on the world stage, who would be the most pleased to see the EU potentially break-up, thus giving him greater influence on the world stage? Could it be none other than the Russian President himself – ex KGB Vladimir Putin?

Now that’s a chilling thought?

Should we stay or should we go? I’ll leave you with the immortal words of Messers Jones and Strummer “if I stay there will be trouble, if I go it will be double!”

Dear Mayoral Candidate...

IN FEBRUARY, Mountview House Group Chairman Geoffrey Riesel wrote to all of the Mayoral Candidates, so as to get their responses on how they would deal with the beleaguered London Taxi industry.

Mr Goldsmith responded directly to us while we have been able to extrapolate Mr Khan’s view on our industry going forward. Below is the letter Geoffrey sent and on the following pages, their responses:

Dear Mayoral Candidate What will you do to support one of London’s iconic industries?

I am writing to you as a Mayoral candidate in the forthcoming elections. In just three months London will make its choice of the person it wants to lead it till 2020. That person will have a vital role to play in supporting the London Taxi industry’s ability to continue providing a first class transport service for Londoners and for visitors to our Capital. Indeed for many visitors the famous London cabby is among the first people they will meet.

Mountview House Group (incorporating Radio Taxis) was first formed in 1953 and started life as a taxi driver’s Friendly Society before de-mutualising in 2004. The business currently numbers around 1750 licensed taxi drivers and fulfils a wide range of clients in the financial and corporate sector, as well as having contracts with local authorities and other public sector clients.

Licensed taxis are rightly seen as one of London’s ‘gold-standard’ services and a vital part of London’s public transport network. Radio Taxis believes that this is in no small part a result from high quality regulation which has been able to shape and improve the taxi service to meet the very challenges and needs that are unique to the Capital. The vehicles are purpose built, wheelchair accessible, feature assistance for people with sensory and physical impairments and meet stringent regulations for conditions of fitness and vehicle emissions. Taxi fares are regulated and controlled by Transport for London and the public enjoy transparency and clarity on what taxis look like, and how they can charge. Yet never before has our industry faced so many different challenges and threats to how it operates. Our staff, our drivers and most importantly our customers are all looking for answers. I have set these out in five broad themes below and would be grateful for your response so that I can share your position with them so they can make an informed decision come Election Day. These questions are: 1. What will you do about the increasing congestion on London’s roads which is now at crisis levels and having a hugely detrimental effect on London’s economy?

2. What will you do to ensure a level playing field between all providers of taxi and private hire services (by levelplaying field I refer to requiring all taxi and private hire providers to comply with TfL’s regulatory and licensing standards)?

3. Do you have any thoughts on whether all personal transport providers in London should comply with issues such as paying taxes in the UK and meeting employment law standards?

4. Would you make it a priority to champion the introduction of new primary legislation for our sector, as the Law Commission have proposed, given that the existing framework is shown to be not fit for purpose?

5. What more will you do to champion the role of the purpose built, 100% wheelchair accessible taxi service within London’s integrated transport network?

6. Do you have any other policies or positions you would like to communicate to the London Taxi industry?

I am grateful to you for taking the time to consider these questions and look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,

Geoffrey Riesel Chairman Mountview House Group Ltd Radio Taxis

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Dear Geoffrey, Thank you for writing to me on this important issue. I am a champion of licensed taxi cabs which, I agree, are one of London’s most iconic symbols.

We therefore need to find ways to balance the playing field and ensure fair competition.

The future Mayor of London should ensure that the regulatory regime around Uber is revisited and brought up to date. There is also need to acknowledge that black cabs drivers bear greater costs as they are subject to more regulation, the demanding ‘Knowledge’, specially approved vehicles and the requirement for wheelchair accessibility.

I believe it is unfair to subject them to direct competition with companies like Uber which have none of these imposed costs.

My position is that the GLA should limit the high numbers of licenses in Central London which cause congestion. I do not believe this problem will be solved by recent proposals to impose a five minute delay. Instead, legislation which provides a clear definition to protect the distinction between taxis and private hire vehicles should be brought forward.

I certainly agree that all personal transport vehicles should pay the correct tax and follow employment law, although this is outside the Mayor’s remit.

If elected Mayor I would support other measures to help licensed taxis to compete with Uber, for example by putting contactless payment systems in all cabs and promoting the fact that all black cabs are wheelchair accessible, in addition to other measures.

Kind regards, Zac Goldsmith MP Conservative Candidate for Mayor of London Visit: backzac2016.com to see my action plan for London.

Follow me on Twitter: @ZacGoldsmith or on my Facebook page: zacgoldsmith

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Sadiq Khan for Mayor – A Manifesto for all Londoners THE following has been extracted from what Sadiq Khan has said about the issues which affect the taxi industry.

AN ICONIC TAXI SERVICE As the world’s greatest city it is absolutely right that we have, and continue to have, the best and most qualified cabbies in the world. London’s black taxi drivers are highly trained and properly checked to a high safety standard, driving wheelchair accessible vehicles, with the incredible geographical recall and sense of direction that only those with ‘The Knowledge’ have.

With people like this at the wheel, it’s understandable that the London black cab is an icon known around the world and a source of pride for Londoners.

I WILL: ● Ensure that the markets for licensed taxi drivers and for private hire drivers are fair – with special privileges built in, as they always have been, for those who become a licensed London taxi driver. ● Ensure that driver safety standards are rigorously enforced across the black cab and private hire industries. ● Retain the exclusive right of licensed black taxi drivers to use bus lanes and ply for hire.

KEEPING LONDON’S ROADS MOVING Congestion on London’s streets continues to cause real problems for many motorists, and is a real drag on business competitiveness.

I WILL: ● Direct TfL to work with utility companies to coordinate maintenance and upgrading of infrastructure, in order to ensure that the same sections of road are not repeatedly subjected to works. ● Prioritise delivery of new river crossings in the east of the city. ● Seek additional powers to regulate rickshaws on the city’s streets. ● Work with businesses, local authorities and freight companies to reduce the number of large Lorries on the city’s roads, particularly at the busiest times. ● Support Car Clubs as a means of reducing congestion and demand for parking. ● Maintain the Congestion Charge at its current level. ● Continue to allocate resources to councils to spend through their Local Implementation Plans, on projects which support my transport strategy.

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How Credit Card Payments can help save London’s Taxis and assist towards Levelling the Playing Field

Card Payments to be Accepted in Every Black Cab ON 3rd FEBRUARY, the TfL board agreed the terms for its mandate that all licensed taxis must accept credit and debit card payments by October 2016. A requirement that we believe is long overdue – both from a public and taxi trade perspective. The move was approved by the Board of Transport for London (TfL) following a consultation in which an overwhelming 86% of respondents backed the move.

Imagine how frustrating your weekly shopping experience would be if only a handful of supermarkets accepted card payments – and you were never quite sure which ones did. We know that this inconvenience alone would drive most of us to either shop online or where our card is always accepted. Or, at the very least, we’d frequent a shop where we knew we didn’t need to carry cash, even if it didn’t always stock our favourite brands.

The inconsistency in accepting card payments across London taxis is an equally frustrating scenario. It is hurting the trade; something the industry can ill afford.

TfL’s mandate will mean that the public will know that taxis are required to accept their card payment every

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time. This consistency and reliability of service is essential in the drive to move towards levelling a very uneven ground transport playing field for taxis. It will mean happier passengers with faster payment transactions and the elimination of the need to carry cash or to stop a journey midway so as to withdraw money from the cash point. And we believe these combined factors will contribute to more people taking taxis, with a potential very significant increase in trade.

Let’s not forget the public have requested the service themselves: last year’s public consultation on the matter highlighted that 88 per cent of respondents felt passengers should be able to pay by card in all taxis in London.

It is naive to think that this overhaul of taxis will not come without its teething problems. The terms around replacing surcharges with transaction fees and fare changes as well as types of payment terminals are being agreed by the TfL Board and these will likely lead to some confusion and possible further debate as they are rolled out. However, we only have to look to the success of the credit card mandate for New York taxis to see the benefits for taxi drivers – cab revenues in New York increased by more than 13% after a similar mandate. Indeed it was introduced just after the banking crash and as a consequence the New York cab trade did not suffer the same drop in business as

did many of the major city taxi industry’s elsewhere in the world.

This is just one of the measures that are necessary for the trade to fight back and to win back some of the work. Is it too little and too late? Let’s hope not.

Cash has always been the standard method of payment in London’s 22,500 licensed taxis, but around half of all cab drivers now accept card payments.

By requiring cards to be accepted in all black cabs, taking a cab will be even easier for Londoners and visitors.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson MP, said: “It’s great news that with a quick swipe of a card, millions of passengers will be able to pay for their journeys in London’s iconic black cabs.

It’s an essential part of modern life and it’ll make paying for your journey swifter and simpler than ever before.”

Garrett Emmerson, TfL’s Chief Operating Officer for Surface Transport, said: “We believe the acceptance of card and contactless payments will be a huge plus for both taxi drivers and their passengers. Card payments are part of everyday life in London, and people use them in every aspect of their lives. The TfL network is seeing more and more contactless payments so this would bring the taxi trade into line with other transport services in the Capital. It means that customers no longer have to check whether they have cash for a journey beforehand and will open up taxis to potential new customers.”

TfL has also committed to working with the card industry to link card payment devices directly to the taximeter in future.

Richard Koch, Head of Policy at The UK Cards Association, said: “Consumers are increasingly choosing to pay with cards as a convenient and secure alternative to cash. It’s great news for Londoners, and visitors to the Capital, that they’ll always have the option of using a debit or credit card in taxis now too. With one in ten card transactions now contactless, many passengers will also welcome the ability simply to touch and pay for their cab journey.”

Customers using cards will not pay any surcharge on their fare, from April.

This will mean that passengers will only ever pay what is shown on the meter, no matter by what means they choose to pay. The flag fall has been increased by 20p per journey (for all rides regardless of whether they pay by card or not) which is a +3% increase. Add to that the fact that over 70% of all Card journey passengers leave a tip, so when the device suppliers charge drivers a nominal percentage – say 5% for the transaction, that will be more than covered. Of course in New York business grew significantly for the taxi trade as a direct consequence and there is no reason to believe that the same will not happen here.

Under the proposals all card equipment will be approved by TfL and must be available for customers to use conveniently. This will ensure that drivers will have a wide range of options to choose from when deciding which equipment to install in their taxi.

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The “Clean” Cab Conundrum

By Peter Gibson Strategic Director I READ an article a few weeks back that suggested that by 2030 there will be more people using cycles in London than driving private cars - that will give us all something to look forward to then!!!

It is a fact of life that the air that we breathe is now measured, tested, categorised, penalised and consequently it is somebody’s responsibility to improve the quality of the air in London and that person is the mayor.

It’s probably safe to say that all public transport will be “clean” by 2030 and we in the taxi industry will all be driving electric/hybrid cabs or hydrogen fuel cell taxis that give off zero emissions. But how do we transition from what we have now to what we will be legislated to drive? What “help” will be made available to assist the purchase of these new “clean air” vehicles?

If Toyota, who make more cars than anybody else, still has a government subsidy to the tune of £5000 to entice buyers of the Prius, I worry about a “clean air” taxi that will have an annual production in the low thousands.

The Chinese Premier Xi Jinping (below) unveiled the new battery-powered TX5 taxi during the state visit at the tail end of 2015.

The new cab will supposedly be available sometime 2017.

Designed by the London Taxi Company, which is owned by Chinese car manufacturer Geely, the vehicle will be constructed using Chinese electric vehicle technology. The TX5 will be rolling off the conveyor belt at a new £300m plant outside Coventry – the UK’s first new auto plant in a decade.

The six-seater TX5 will have plug-in hybrid capabilities, which means that it can run on battery power and then switch from electric to petrol power when its battery runs out. It will also come with Wi-Fi internet access and charging points for passengers’ mobile devices.

The cab will supposedly be ready just before new regulations

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take effect in January 2018, they will require all new taxis and private hire vehicles in London to have a ‘zero-emissions’ capability for at least 30 miles.

The new “hybrid” cab is LTC’s answer to London’s ongoing air pollution problem.

Mayor Boris Johnson has expressed support for electric and hybrid vehicles, which he said had the potential to become a viable option for mass-market consumers. “I want to particularly encourage electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids – they are the way forward,” he said.

I remember attending the launch of the Frazer-Nash London Cab at City Hall a couple of years ago but, as yet, I don’t think that they are available to the London Taxi driver to buy.

The Frazer-Nash Metrocab was to be the first dedicated London vehicle combating the idea that having low CO2 emissions is all that matters and recognising that all cities need to start moving away from Diesel.

There were some positive reviews of the Frazer-Nash cab when it was unveiled. It is a petrol hybrid and the silence of the electric motors, the ease of the single-ratio transmission apparently makes driving around the capital a less stressful experience for the driver and the reduction in drive-by noise will make city and town living more tolerable for the inhabitants.

The new Mayoral ULEZ (ultra-low emissions zone) will operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week within the same area as the current Congestion Charging Zone (CCZ), and supposedly comes into force in 2020. All newly licensed taxis will have to have hybrid capabilities, assuming that there are hybrid taxis to buy and that they are affordable.

Will the race for hybrid engine technology open up the London taxi conditions of fitness debate again if some of the larger manufactures, like Peugeot and Fiat, get into the hybrid taxi market?

Will cleaner engines and lower emissions become more important than the famed turning circle if time defeats the development of the TX5 and/or the Frazer-Nash Metrocab before 2020?

What will these vehicles cost, given that hybrid cars sales receive government subsidies and they sell in very large quantities and taxis don’t?

Finally, with a Knowledge that takes up to 4 years and a regulator that takes up to 4 weeks to issue a Private Hire Driver license, will there be a “viable” taxi trade existing after 2020 to “push” the new, silent, clean “Droshky” of the future alongside the oxygen fresh cycle lanes of London town?

WIN A CAR UP TO THE VALUE OF £10,000 To have a chance to win a Car up to the value of £10,000, all you need to do is get a hole in one.

So why not sign up and join us on 8th June 2016 for our Charity Golf Day on at Hendon Golf Club.

The cost for the day is £70 which includes 18 holes, a light breakfast in the morning and a meal later on.

If you, family or friends would like to participate, please contact TDYCF at the address below or email for an entry form.

All money raised will be donated to the 5 charities listed below at the Annual Dinner Dance on 26th November 2016.

Leaving this with you – Russell, Hon Chairman.

1. The Albany Taxi Charity Fund for Children with Special Needs. 2. The London Taxidrivers’ Fund for Underprivileged Children.

3. Southend Fund for Underprivileged Children. 4. London Benevolent Association for War Disabled.

5. East London Cabbies Outing.

Taxi Driver of the Year Charity Fund Remember those less fortunate than ourselves Registered with the Charity Commission No. 100761.

Please Reply To: 5 St Brides Avenue, Edgware Middlesex HA8 6BT. Phone/ Fax To: 020 8952 1357 – Mobile: 07850 056 765 – Email: brussella@talk21.com Website: taxidriveroftheyearcharityfund.com 17

Down Street Station – C structural steel frame, all designed with distinctive ox-blood glazed terracotta tiles.

The Leslie Green stations were all identically built and constructed with flat roofs, with the deliberate aim of encouraging commercial office development above, another benefit of having the load-bearing structural steel frame.

The designs also featured large semi-circular windows at first floor level with a broad strip between the two floors announcing the name of the station. The fact that so many of these disused Leslie Green buildings still exist, is a testimony of this man’s architectural genius.

Down Street Exterior in 1907 IF YOU were to travel by subway on the Piccadilly Line, between Green Park and Hyde Park Corner in either direction, looking out the window when you’re about half way into your journey, assuming you have an observant eye, it is possible to catch a brief glimpse of a bricked-up wall hiding the disused platform of the former Down Street Station, which, as I recently discovered, has some subterranean secrets to uncover.

BACKGROUND HISTORY OF DOWN STREET STATION Down Street, one of the side turnings from Piccadilly was developed in the 18th century

by John Downes, whose family owned land and cottages in the area for several , d te r generations, therefore; a e h e faint th r fo t o n s Street a as unlit Down w l “...this tour w e n n tu e inherited their family as much of th e tunnels were name. Down Street some of th e s u a c e b d n me use, Station first opened a ti r a w r fo ff o doors on 15 partitioned ces to its a p s t h g ti e March 1907 on the m ” there were so t. s u d in Great Northern, walls covered h it w , h g Piccadilly & u o r get th Brompton Railway (GNP&BR) which makes up part of the present day Piccadilly line.

The architect employed for fifty of London’s underground stations including Down Street was Leslie Green, born in Maida Vale in 1875. The uniformity of his constructions as two-storey buildings with a

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DOWN AND OUT From the start Down Street Station was not as successful as it was hoped it would be.

There were a number of reasons for this; firstly the close proximity to two other stations, Green Park and Hyde Park Corner.

Another reason was the area – Mayfair – where the local residents were often, as now, of the affluent upper classes and did not relish the thought of being seen travelling by either bus or tube. Green Park and Hyde Park had the advantage of being better placed for the tourist trade, where Down Street was out of the way. Real estate on the main Piccadilly thoroughfare was very expensive and therefore to have built the stations frontage on Piccadilly could simply not be afforded.

This caused two other problems; firstly they had to build the station in a side street because it was cheaper, which meant there was not much passing trade and people didn’t know it was there! Another reason was that Piccadilly underground runs underneath Piccadilly.

Most tube lines run underneath main roads because it was cheaper, in fact to run under roads was free. The next time you take a tube and wonder why they twist and turn all the time – this was the reason – to save money!

The other drawback of building Down Street Station in a side street was the need to build longer tunnel walkways to get to the entrance of the platforms. They had to spend more money on extra tunnels and the passengers didn’t like the longer walk to the platforms.

Health and safety (yes even in those days) in the guise of the Board of Trade didn’t like what they saw and insisted on an extra tunnel in case of fire and for emergency evacuation.

Although the railway was burdened with the

Churchill’s Secret War Rooms

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extra costs, one good thing to come out of having the extra tunnel, not found in any other tube station and therefore, unbeknown at the time, was that would it was destined to make a brilliant and unique wartime bunker.

The final nail in the coffin for Down Street was modernisation. Both Green Park (originally called Dover Street) and Hyde Park were redeveloped with escalators, it was discovered that more passengers could travel even more quickly on a “moving stairs” than by lift shaft.

Both these stations were upgraded with new entrances, with Hyde Park Station moving closer to Down Street, relocating underneath Hyde Park Corner roundabout.

The original station entrance by the way still exists and can be seen where the Pizza on the Park (now the Wellesley Hotel) is situated, at Knightsbridge.

Down Street Station closed on 21 May 1932, after only 25 years as a station.

MIND THE SIX YEAR GAP Ghost stations have for a long-time been on my bucket list, so when the chance finally arrived to take the Hidden London Tour of Down Street Station, even with the ticket price set at a staggering £75, it was still worth the treat.

Buying the ticket was no easy task either, as Mountview News were offered priority booking, ticket sales were sold a day earlier than the general public, but even so it took many hours to obtain, once the online ticket sales were released the website went down for most of the day due to the heavy demand.

On the day of the tour I was told to meetup with the organisers at the Athenaeum Hotel for a safety briefing over coffee before the tour.

It was explained that this tour was not for the faint hearted, as much of the tunnel was unlit and because some of the tunnels were

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partitioned off for its wartime use, so there is some tight spaces to get through, with walls covered in dust.

I was possibly the only one in the group who was not an underground railway anorak, although I do admit to being a “Londonphile” and partial to the odd ghost train ride at the fairground. There was about fifteen of us for the tour with two volunteer guides, Glen and Keith, a security guard and a lights out woman which I will explain about her task later.

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We were each handed torches before being admitted into a small doorway on the left hand side of the station, where we descended down 136 steps to the bottom of a spiral staircase. The tiling inside was the traditional Leslie Green’s Edwardian coloured maroon, cream and green which was the interior design throughout the Leslie Green stations.

Glen informed us that after the station was closed in 1932 there was a six year gap when the station lay dormant until 1938, when war became inevitable and the Railway Executive Committee (REC) made up of the big four railways – Southern Railway, Great Western Railway, London North Eastern Railway and Midland and Scottish Railways and was formed to protect the essential capabilities that were vital to any war effort, mainly to move munitions and supplies by railway personnel. They needed a bomb proof telephone exchange and their basement at Fielden House, Great College Street Westminster was ruled out.

Less than three weeks after the REC was formed, the Chairman Sir Ralph Wedgwood wrote to the secretary G. Cole Deacon setting out his concerns with regard to the build up of war in Europe. The REC continued looking for a suitable location to convert for their needs. Down Street was selected as the most suitable place and formally signed a lease with London Transport (LT) on 28 March 1939.

The planned accommodation was designed to house forty staff in a bomb proof, air-conditioned underground bunker (the first time air-conditioning was used by the underground). The site was equipped with its own telephone exchange connected to fifty telephones and a teletype machine. The postal address of Down Street was kept secret, so post was taken to and fro by a dedicated despatch team of four LT motorcyclists. Meeting rooms and office were provided along with washrooms, lavatories, dining facilities and dormitories. We were led by our guides through these original passageways, which were dark, narrow and smelly. Our only light was by the torches we had been provided from the light-up lady (I mentioned her earlier). Every time we arrived at a certain point in our station tour we were given the order, “Lights-Out” so as not to distress or distract the train drivers, who were not familiar with ever seeing any lights in this particular vicinity – ever.

At this point the trains were passing by fast and furious.

With howling gusts of wind which you normally expect at tube stations. There is a signal positioned on the wall near Down Street Station today

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the disused platform by a small door door, which can be activated to change the lights from green to red instantly by operating a push-button. This was used for some of the high-ranking members of the war cabinet to summon the next available train to stop. They would board the train through the drivers cab at the front of the tube train, unnoticed by any of the passengers. I could just imagine some “Hooray-Henry’s” hailing a train as they would a London taxi.

Members of the British War Cabinet of all political persuasions were concerned for Winston Churchill’s safety and it was advised that the Prime Minister should himself make use of this remarkable bomb-proof shelter, in what was described as the safest place to be during the blitz.

Once Churchill discovered all the meals were provided by top quality chefs from the railway hotels he was happy to work and sleep there. On 19 November 1940 Churchill dined there with some members of the REC and the war cabinet. They were served Caviar, a 1928 Perrier Jouet Champagne, with 1865 brandy and fine cigars. Those close to Churchill would often agree that he was reluctant to shelter and he would always put the safety of others first.

But he still enjoyed some of the indulgences of life, even in a war torn London!

The success of Down Street as a headquarters was demonstrated by the REC’s decision to remain beyond the war, finally leaving on 31 December 1947, with its bombproof design having thankfully never been put to the test.

Down Street has returned to its previous civilian purpose of helping to ventilate the Piccadilly line, a job it still performs to this day.

Sometimes tours become available, but these sell like hot cakes even with the £75 price tag, which must rank Down Street as selling the world’s most expensive platform tickets.

The Next Issue: Air Raid Sheltering at the Strand.

Roger Sligo.

Image Credits: The Down Street Exterior 1907 and images 1 – 4 are all copyright ©Transport Museum.

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By Robert Stead

Business Essential or Irritating Hype?

LET’S START by redefining the question slightly, the Chartered Institute of marketing defines marketing as ‘The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably’ nothing particularly digital, or not digital about that, though it’s probably not what you thought marketing was either.

What most people generally think when they hear the word ‘marketing’ is different, they think about marketing communication. Defined by the dictionary as “The imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium” There are lots of marketing communications media around, so how about: ■ Paper marketing (newspaper ads and direct mail) ■ Outdoor marketing (posters, ads on the tube) ■ Sports marketing (those company names on team shirts) ■ Aural / oral marketing (making telephone calls) ■ Interpersonal marketing (talking to someone face to face) ■ Video marketing (watching a TV ad) ■ Referral marketing (my friend suggested this great new product) Digital marketing is just the same, it’s not a new world, just a different medium, a screen and keyboard. So why is it so popular?

It’s cheap, sending millions of emails costs almost nothing, making millions of phone calls costs a lot more. That’s why there is a lot of digital communication about, when it’s so cheap to communicate there is no incentive to be selective about who is targeted, so the message is sent to everyone. After all someone is bound to be interested somewhere. This is lousy marketing by the way, much better to send a few messages to the people that could really be interested. Much less annoying and ultimately more effective Digital communication is engaging, unlike most other communication tactics you can reply, have a debate, “like” it, “follow it” or send it to your friends. Do you think all that material you watch on You Tube or those celebrity blogs you read are there as an act of selfless public entertainment? Better think again. Most times someone is paying to promote

something and it’s not always easy to understand who is paying and who is being paid either.

Finally it’s easy to personalise and target specifically to particular audiences. Aha I can hear you think, but what does this actually mean? Everything we do online is seen by someone (your internet service provider, the web sites you visit, Google, your email provider, Facebook, Twitter and many many more) often these activities are recorded on your own computer (using things called Cookies). These companies use what they see to target very specific ads towards you.

AN EXAMPLE WILL ILLUSTRATE: Go online and search for something you could plausibly need but have no intention of buying, a new boiler, or a hotel room in Newcastle perhaps. Spend a minute or two browsing and then get back to your life. Over the next few days you’ll see a substantial number of online ads for a new boiler or a hotel in Newcastle, you might even get emails on the subject. This isn’t random. It’s the digital world using what you’ve done to predict what you might buy, and then selling that information to the advertisers who target their messages specifically to you. It’s called remarketing. It probably sounds a bit sinister to you, but keep in mind that the digital providers have to make money somewhere so that you can use their services for free. This is one way they do it. There are others, if you’d like to get one up on the digital natives in your life (that’s teenagers), google programmatic advertising and impress them with your new found knowledge So does digital communication work for Mountview?

Absolutely yes! It’s a great way to reach businesses who might need a cab account or a ground transport consolidator. We have Twitter, LinkedIn feeds and websites of course, for outgoing communication in the business to business world we tend to use email rather than the more exotic techniques, it’s effective, easy to manage and polite.

Digital communication has already changed the world, it’s moved advertising spend from local press and directories (remember the Yellow Pages?) to Google and Bing. Like all marketing communications tactics, it relies on the quality of the marketer running it. Used well it’s effective and discreet; used badly or dishonestly it’s irritating, ineffective and potentially damaging.

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AUSTRALIAN OPEN Tennis

By Robert MacDonald Watson, Company Secretary, Mountview House Group

COME JANUARY and the world’s Tennis Fans turned their attention to the first Grand Slam Tournament of 2016. It took place at Melbourne Park, Melbourne down in the State of Victoria in the South East corner of Australia.

This always seemed to be a Tournament that you missed because the time difference was so great they were always playing while we were at home or were fast asleep. Not this year when my wife and I went on an epic trip east, stopping off briefly in Hong Kong and arriving in Melbourne on Thursday 21 January, in order to attend the Tournament on the Friday and Saturday when the third round would be taking place.

Melbourne Park is pretty central and has three main show courts, The Rod Laver Arena, Margaret Court Arena and the HiSense Arena. The Australian Open has

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been situated there since 1988, when it moved in from Kooyong. It has been played in Melbourne since 1972.

The previous year the men’s singles was won by Novak Djokovic of Serbia and the women’s singles by Serena Williams of the USA. Novak had won the title five times and Serena six times. Not many people were betting on them failing to defend their titles. GB’s hopes were once again resting on Andy Murray, ranked number 2 in the world and a finalist here on four previous occasions.

Melbourne seems to be a very relaxed city, especially proud of its coffee and suitably fuelled with Lavazza, people took their seats for the day’s session and/or for the night sessions, for, unlike Wimbledon, play is broken into two parts. Having travelled so far, we booked for

both the day and the night sessions on both days, usually this means you finish between 10 and 11pm but not always, as it depends entirely on the length of the matches and of course on the weather. Luckily the show courts have roofs that can be closed. The weather in Melbourne had already reached well over 30° centigrade and there had been a dust storm in the days preceding our arrival. We got rain showers and sun shine and it was amusing to watch the ball boys and ball girls mopping the court with towels, all very high tech.

We were lucky enough to have seats on the Rod Laver Arena to watch Roger Federer defeat Gregor Dimitrov, otherwise known as “Baby Fed” because of the similarity in their playing styles. We also saw Serina beat a young Russian and then Maria Sharapova go through her paces with shrieks attached as is her custom.

Belinda Bencic, the up and coming Swiss teenager also triumphed but there was no home joy for supporters of the exciting Nick Kyrgios as he lost to the number six seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic.

We departed for the night, goggle eyed.

The next day we started off with a lacklustre performance from the number three seed Garbine Muguraza who seemed not to have woken up at all.

Then we had a couple of more polished wins by Vika Azarenka and Stan Wawrinka respectively. This was followed by an emotional night match between the popular Serbian Ana Ivanovic and the young Madsion Keys from the USA. Ana won the first set then during the second set we spotted someone staggering up one of the Aisles as if drunk. He then collapsed to be surrounded by concerned spectators, then officials then a paramedic and then doctors from the crowd. CPR was administered and it became apparent that it was Nigel Sears, Ana’s coach and Andy Murray’s father-in-law.

Andy was playing on one of the other show courts at the time. We had a young Australian anaesthetist sitting next to us. He went over to help but thankfully was not needed. After a long delay in which play was suspended, the organisers managed to stretcher Nigel Sears out.

Later the girls resumed play in what was a very tense atmosphere and Madsion Keys won a tight three set

match. It was with much relief that we heard on our way out that Nigel Sears was ok and cracking terrible jokes.

Outside in the grounds there was plenty of activity with live bands, merchandising and lots of food and drink stalls. For some reason there was a group of large Ninja Turtles and being Saturday, many wearing John McEnroe wigs. There was even a hen party group that seemed to appear in different places in the Arena wearing billowing white dresses. It was easy to walk around the outside courts. We managed to watch a rare match between four Brits, Rae & Smith playing Heather Watson and Joanna Konta and there we were right up close to the players.

We had moved on to Auckland in new Zealand by the time it got to the final stages of the tournament but luckily the relatives there had Sky TV so we could watch.

We were really heartened by the feat of Brit Joanna Konta getting to the semi-Final and we sat up watching Andy Murray battling way against serial winner Novak Djokovic until 1:50am.

It was trip I never imagined we would make and I would most certainly recommend it. We now only have Paris left to complete our personal tennis Grand Slam.

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Full Stop! By Alan Franks

AS THE TRAFFIC in London continues to get worse and average speeds reduce to well below 10 miles an hour, the question is what happens when London grinds to a complete halt?

As traffic in central London increases, not helped by the outrageous licensing of 600 new private hire drivers a week, there seems to be a policy of reducing the already limited space in which vehicles can drive, what kind of logic is that?

The cycle super highway scheme, followed by some very strange changes, in places like Tavistock Place, that do not take into account the fact that people actually need to be able to access main termini from different directions are baffling, combined that with the proposed closure of Tottenham Court Road and it simply defies belief.

And the funniest thing of all (not funny ha ha but funny idiosyncratic!) is when we have a Taxi protest, the reports always highlight the fact that we brought London to a standstill!

Well I have news for the road planners, it is already at a standstill due to your ineptitude.

The volume of traffic in London requires careful consideration, so as to enable it to flow

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at a reasonable level and there needs to be more thought put into this process and that should include a major input from interested parties and stakeholders which most certainly should also involve feedback from Taxi Drivers.

The policy of having separate road space for cycles in a city like London, in my view, will not work and has clearly not been thought out properly.

London is gridlocked, nothing can move, businesses all over the country are suffering, maybe someone in government will take notice? But don’t hold your breath!

Our industry faces many challenges but our ability to be able to move around the city with our passengers so as to keep the wheels of UK PLC’s economy turning, not to mention our licensed and inalienable right to be able to earn our living, is right up there with the rest.

The Radio Taxis Photo Contest

AT RADIO TAXIS we wanted to know what travellers and commuters see of this city: What moves them, what inspires and intrigues them? We wanted to see the London that they see.

So we set up the Photo Contest, which has now completed half a year with hundreds of photos submitted and two winners selected in the last two quarters.

‘Views of London’ photo contest accepts photos in a number of categories including travel portraits, outdoor scenes, scenes of places and spontaneous moments but with one underlying theme, and that’s London.

The winner’s photo will be featured on our webpage, magazine and our social channels, plus a chance to win a quarterly prize of £100, or an annual prize of £250.

Entering the competition is simple, just visit radiotaxis.co.uk/views-london, enter your details, select the photo file that you want to submit and click upload. That’s it.

The winners over the last two quarters were, Nick Jackson for Borough Market Umbrella Art and Kevin Sutch for Sicilian Avenue who have won the

quarterly prize of £100. So go ahead and enter our contest, follow us on our social channels and share this with your families and friends.

Remember the contest ends on 6 June 2016, and the third quarterly winner is to be selected in the coming fortnight, so best of luck and get snappy!

twitter.com/rtg_london facebook.com/RadioTaxisLondon linkedin.com/company/radio-taxis-group instagram.com/radio.taxis/

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Light at the End of the Private Hire Regulatory Tunnel?

WELL 2015 wasn’t an easy year for the Taxi trade as a whole and 2016 has frankly been as bad.

The chief problem has been the continued arrival of new so called ‘disruptive’ services built around digital platforms which deliberately flout and take advantage of the long-standing regulatory regime put in place for both Taxi and Private Hire Services.

This has been exacerbated by a frustrating acquiescence by Transport for London to the problem.

As someone who has been involved in the trade for more than forty years and having represented our industry to the politicians and regulators for the best part of twenty-five years, it has been immensely frustrating to see, not least as I was aware that there were many things they could and should be done.

But finally it looks as if something might be happening. Transport for London consulted on their document ‘Private Hire Regulations Review: Response to Consultation and Proposals’ On March 18th TfL published the following full list of proposals and which have now been approved by the TfL Board they are as follows: ● Operators must have the facility to provide a booking confirmation to passengers containing the photo ID and details of the vehicle being used to discharge the booking where passengers are able to receive that information

● TfL will liaise with the Home Office on introducing DBS checks on private hire operator staff that have face to face contact with the public ● TfL to stop accepting payment for licence fees by postal order and cheque ● Drivers to carry or display a copy of insurance details at all times ● Introduce new operator licence fee structure to better reflect operator licensing costs based on operator size. The specific revisions to the licence fee structure will be consulted on separately

● Operators will be required to provide specified information to TfL at specified intervals including details of all drivers and vehicles registered with them

● Amendment of regulations to give TfL the power to control advertising displayed inside, from, or on the outside of a private hire vehicle

● Operators must record the main destination for each booking before the journey commences

● Operators will be required to notify TfL before changing their operating model

● Operators to retain all records for a period of 12 months ● TfL to control the names under which operators offer private hire services to the public

● Operators must ensure that customers can speak to a real person in the event of a problem with their journey

● Private hire drivers to be required to demonstrate a certain standard of English

● Private hire operators must provide an estimated fare prior to the commencement of the journey

● Individual licence applicants to provide National Insurance numbers to TfL

● Hire and Reward insurance will be required at the point of vehicle licensing, and for it to remain in place for the duration of the licence

● A driver’s private hire vehicle licence to be considered for revocation if his/her private hire driver’s licence is revoked

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● Working with the Department for Transport to develop guidance on ridesharing

A decision has been deferred on proposal six, which stated that TfL will no longer issue licence variations to private hire operator licenses to add a late-night or temporary event operating centres. More work will be undertaken on this point.

TfL say that they will now work closely with the private hire industry to ensure that the revised regulations are implemented in a timely and appropriate manner.

This document is a follow-up to an earlier consultation which looked at how they regulate the Private Hire Industry.

It contains some much needed and long overdue changes. And importantly the changes it contains do not require any primary legislation (which can take years to achieve) but instead will be implemented by TfL using the powers they already have, mainly contained in the Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998.

Back in 1998, I spent many hours lobbying Ministers, officials and politicians to improve this Act. Our intent was to give the Public Carriage Office (now TfL) the powers to effectively regulate the industry.

The intention was to see Private Hire regulated to the same standards as the Taxi industry. That means exacting

standards of safety and security for passengers together with a level of service that sees London’s taxi service recognised across the world. It also meant maintaining the distinction between Taxis with their right to rank and Ply for Hire from the pre-booked Private Hire Service.

Now finally we see some changes from TfL which will albeit not containing everything we wanted, it will nevertheless at least see a move in the right direction.

These and many other changes will slightly level the playing field and ensure a more stringent regulatory framework to protect Londoners. This is a vital change and it is imperative that TfL pushes ahead with its implementation, whenever that will be.

I therefore responded personally to the consultation as did many others across the trade. One of the heartening aspects of the challenges we face, was to see such a unified and effective response from the whole industry.

We have also seen unprecedented efforts from people across the trade to get our message across to the Mayor and TfL using all sorts of communication channels. It is a shame they didn’t listen to us earlier and with greater expediency.

Geoffrey Riesel, Chairman & CEO.

John Vigus’s Motorists’ Guide MOST OF YOU may have heard or seen the name of John Vigus who has been associated with Radio Taxis since 2010 when, on his advice, we started challenging Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs). This has proved to have been very successful, having lost only around 20 adjudication appeals over the past five years.

Of course there have been a number of PCNs issued where there were no grounds for appeal and those were paid.

In January 2012 Westminster stopped issuing PCNs to black cabs having had around 450 of our appeal decisions go against them. City of London continued, aggressively, issuing PCNs but John achieved a 100% success rate at adjudication.

Recently, we have had the Parking Eye v Beavis case where the Supreme Court declared that a parking charge penalty of £140 was not unreasonable nor unconscionable.

Local authorities across London are now vigorously pursuing moving traffic contraventions against motorists who ignore signs or simply make an honest mistake.

Using his many years of experience and his specialist knowledge, John has now put pen to paper and published a 120 page guide to moving traffic and parking regulations.

This new publication is a “Mine” of information detailing the finer points for all motorists with advice for taxi drivers in particular.

Written in 7 parts it covers the Legislation, Red Routes, Stopping, Waiting and Loading Restrictions (including bus stop regulations), Parking Bays, Moving Traffic (including box junction regulations and cycle boxes), Bus Lanes and Parking on private land. Most of you will know that John has been readily available to give advice and to assist and represent drivers who have received PCNs and will continue to do so.

A hard copy of ‘The Motorists Guide to Moving Traffic and Parking Regulations’ is priced at £8 or alternatively it can be made available to Radio Taxis and Xeta drivers in electronic form at a cost of £5 per copy.

Orders will be taken via the Station Road Driver Services 020 7272 2626 office and payment can be deducted from your Radio Taxis account.

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The Life and Times of a Radio Taxis Shuttle Bus Driver – 2015/2016 AS A RETIRED RADIO TAXIS DRIVER – Out of the blue in June 2015 I received a phone call from the lovely Tracey Fuller, enquiring if I was available to undertake some driving work, as in August, Radio Taxis were moving from Finsbury Park to New Southgate.

I asked what the job would entail and expressed surprise that New Southgate was the proposed site, as it seemed far removed from the usual localities of London’s other radio circuits. Tracey explained the job would involve three retired ex Radio Taxis drivers ferrying staff back and forth locally from the local tube station, Arnos Grove, which was the nearest underground stop to the new site, and occasionally to New Southgate overground station which is also close by.

I did not hesitate and said I would be happy to accept, and that my wife would be equally happy to get me out of the house for a while, as apparently since I have retired, I interfere too much in her day-by-day running of the household. At times, wives do seem to have strange thoughts.

Nothing happened until July when Tracey contacted me again informing me that things would start happening soon, and in early August she asked if I would be available for a couple of days to ferry staff to The North London Business Park, wait for them to have their security checks, and then return to Lennox Road.

I arrived at Mountview House early in the morning with a sense of trepidation, because I had no idea which type of vehicle I would be driving.

When I walked through the security gates into the car park, I saw a monstrous Ford

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Tourneo eight seat mini bus staring me in the face. I made contact with Ian Miller who I remembered dealt with the Westminster Schools Account, and asked if he would come with me for a test drive, which he readily agreed to do.

In truth it took me a while to get used to the length and width of the vehicle, but eventually I did and went out on my own for a while. The vehicle had a habit of cutting out if the speed was dropped in certain gears, so my initial journeys were driven very cautiously, fortunately without any problems.

A few weeks later the shifts began in earnest as more and more staff moved into the new office complex. The three drivers were Charlie doing the early morning shift, me in the afternoon and Harvey the late grave yard shift.

At times, for various reasons, shifts were swapped and eventually another person; Ronnie joined the gang. None of us knew how long the job would last. Perhaps it would only be for a couple of months until the staff became used to the best way to travel from the many different areas

of London they lived in. As the months merged into one another, the end of December seemed be the logical cutoff point. Charlie stopped working at Christmas, and the remaining three of us doubled up on some of his shifts. All good things come to an end and the inevitable phone call came from Tracey informing us that the 29th January would be the final day.

I was a taxi driver member of Radio Taxis for over forty three years until I retired in June 2014, and it was a pleasure to be involved once again in an organisation that is still dear to my heart. Nevertheless, as with most things in life, there is usually a down side as well as an upside. The down sides first, I have to admit as much as I was mostly enjoying myself, at times it did become a little tedious driving back and forth along Brunswick Park Road, so much so that occasionally I ventured in and out of the complex driving along Oakleigh Road South. Twice the electronically controlled driver’s seat became faulty, not enabling me to raise, lower, or move it backwards or forwards. Very uncomfortable – but I just about managed to cope with it, despite my back problems. However, my major whines were encountering so many mindless idiotic drivers who, especially during the rush hours, would continually block the exit from Arnos Grove station. Even more stupid than that was the continual obstructing of the road exits around the heavily used Arnos Grove roundabout, totally ignoring the keep clear signs.

Very frustrating and causing unnecessary major gridlock, as the surrounding areas are often used by heavy traffic trying to find ways to avoid the usual mayhem on the North Circular Road (A406).

Eventually with a little luck and creativity on my part I managed to find ways to avoid some the chaos and on most occasions arrived in time to set down or pick up my passengers. Not wishing to sound pretentious, but the boys and girls were quite impressed with my old taxi drivers’ prowess in avoiding traffic jams. There’s life in the old dog yet.

No more gripes, because the upside was much more satisfying as I had the pleasure of meeting and talking to so many lovely people, sometimes reminiscing about the good old times of Radio Taxis. Without exception, they were understanding about the traffic situations, warm hearted, humorous, and very appreciative of not only my efforts on their behalf, but also the other drivers.

On occasions I also took guests and clients on the local run back to Arnos Grove station and they were equally grateful. At one point during the five and a half months that our Shuttle Bus was in use, it broke down as a consequence of vandalism. For a week or so an old Radio Taxi took its place. It was quite a nice feeling to once more drive a cab, especially as unlike the manual gearbox of the mini bus, it was an automatic. As the cab was only a five seater, the staff came out very quickly at the end of their shifts, making sure they had secured a place. So during that time I had to do more trips.

One of the more surreal journeys of my Radio Taxis experience took place on a horribly cold, wet evening.

While waiting to take group of staff back to Arnos Grove station, our esteemed chairman Geoffrey Riesel came out of the building laden down with armfuls of all manner of things. I think he’d had some deliveries that day and was struggling to carry it all especially in the terrible weather. He asked me ever so politely, if I would mind taking him up to the higher level car park where his car was. The car park at our new premises is like an airport car park, huge. I explained, good humouredly that I was only employed to drive back and forth from Arnos Grove station, but with us both laughing he pulled rank (only kidding) and I took him to his car, time of journey about 30 seconds.

During my final shifts I was very touched by the staff ’s comments about how much they would miss the Shuttle, not only because it meant they would have to go by bus to and from the station, but also the enjoyable banter between them and the drivers during the journeys. I even received a few kisses and hugs, obviously only from the girls. My sincere thanks go out to two special ladies, Tracey and Fiona, who made everything tick, and listened to my occasional grumbles with sympathy, and they were always a pleasure to talk to. Even though the unexpected adventure has come to an end, my body clock remains in early morning wake up mode, presumably thinking I still have a job to go to.

I have now retired twice, and hopefully my wife has come to the realisation that in all probability I will not work again, and she will have to put up with me being home more often. Unless of course Radio Taxis decides to move once more, and my experience as a Shuttle Bus driver might be needed.

Robert Dulin (ex Baker 24).

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Curiosity Corner Roger Sligo on the mysteries of hidden London

The Diamond of Deptford DIAMOND WAY SE8, is one street name that could have you puzzled. You will not be able to discover it anywhere in the A to Z of London – Diamond Way even escapes a listing on Google Maps which will only show an arrow pointing through to the graveyard of a church in Deptford, with no reference to the street name, yet it really does exist, but why does it and what is the story behind it?

Deptford High Street has an entrance leading to St Paul’s Church, where you will find the only street sign for Diamond Way, which will take you along a footpath and across the graveyard to St Paul’s Church. St Paul’s Church was built in 1730, designed in the Italianate style by Thomas Archer. Archer only ever built two churches in London – this one at Deptford and St John, Smith Square, in Westminster. They were both among the new churches to be built under the ‘Fifty New Churches Act’ – a fund provided by the Government of the day to build additional parish churches in communities that had

expanded during the 17th century. As a church, St Paul’s, Deptford, is almost unique in period and style. By the 1960s however, the church was in serious decline not only with the diminishing congregation but also in the rundown state of the building. Because of the derelict state of the church with only a handful of worshipers, it was considered set for demolition.

The diamond in the rough came along to save the church when Father David John Diamond was appointed in 1969. He was one of the most remarkable parish priests in the Church of England. When he came to Deptford he was, unfashionably, an out- and-out AngloCatholic priest. When others were tearing off their dog-collars and dropping ecclesiastical titles, he revelled and delighted in his priesthood.

But not in a solemn or starchy manner – the people of Deptford came to share this delight. Diamond’s approach was that everything was for the whole community, not simply for a church ‘club’. Everyone belonged in the Church, because everyone was loved by God. Within the first year of his appointment he started up the Deptford Festival, being a great organiser of community events the Deptford Festival became famous, with its street parties, royal visits, flamboyant firework displays and fun for all on the grandest scale.

The pensioners’ outing to Southend for example: there had to be a thousand pensioners. A cannon would be fired and 20 coaches would set off, with the narrow high street lined by every infant and primary school, cheering and waving flags, the procession was led by Father Diamond’s grave

St Pauls Church

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a brass band. It brought everyone together and made everyone feel they mattered, that Deptford was a great place to be.

One of Father Diamond’s greatest achievements was the organising of celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the church – in 1980 – when he was successful in inviting the Queen Mother, to the special service held in the church. Other celebrities to visit his church were Princess Margaret and Dick Emery.

GANGSTERS AND DISCOS There were others amongst his congregation who may have been shall we say a little less desirable, including the gangster Charlie Richardson, but Diamond was there to guide his flock and not sit in judgement. He also had his own misgivings which made him more acceptable to the locals who loved him. He lived on a bottle of whisky a day and was often found slumped in his chair, often exhausted and cranky, but also saintly in a crazily generous sort of way. He didn’t do days off. His entire life was dedicated to his parish.

And he didn’t care where you came from and what you had done.

He turned the crypt into a disco with a Friday night Reggae session

for the West Indian community.

His last full day on earth was on Sunday 31 August 1992. He did Mass for the sick in the morning, a record ten babies christened in the afternoon, an evening sermon in Harrow and then the night train to Perth in Scotland with his beloved dad. Monday morning his life was cut short by a heart attack after a perfect drive around Loch Earn, he was aged just fifty-six.

The quest to secure Father Diamond his last resting place was a typical Deptford tale in itself. The congregation wanted to have him buried in his own churchyard, but because internments had ceased many years earlier permission was refused. At the eleventh hour the future Law Lord, Sir Anthony Lloyd used his influence in high places and the impossible was achieved. Eighty Anglo-Catholic and other clergy walked behind the funeral cortege as the coffin was drawn in state from Deptford Broadway, with the High Street shops pulling down their shutters for the morning of the funeral. He rests in peace in a tomb beside his beloved church; his grave looks every bit as ancient as all the others in the graveyard by the side of Diamond Way SE8.

Copy Cats THE LAW SOCIETY building on Chancery Lane has some fine railings with some splendid lions that sit on top. These lions are copies of the ones which Alfred Stevens did for the British Museum, but are they all they appear to be?

The main railings and gates of the British Museum were erected in May 1852; that summer, a miniature railing ornamented with twenty-five lions was erected to mark the limits of the Trustees’ property. When the museum authorities planned their forecourt they commissioned Sydney Smirke the younger brother of Robert Smirke (the architect of the British Museum).

Sydney was unable to resolve the difficulty of modelling a lion 24 inches high within a base 14 inches square, the commission was given over to Alfred Stevens, who was well known for his sculptural metal-work and whose designs were highly acclaimed at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Stevens realised that only a seated lion would fit the required measurements and that lions never sat in this position. Rather than admit defeat he borrowed a friend’s cat to model the body and added a lion’s head on the top.

The miniature railing was dismantled at the end of 1895 to make room for pavement improvements. Eight of the twenty-five lions were placed in various parts of the Museum, while the remaining seventeen were put into storage. In 1899 twelve of these were removed to St Paul’s Cathedral, together with their connecting lengths of railing, to stand round the Wellington Monument, which Stevens had designed in 1856. In 1937 two lions were deposited on loan at the Dorset County Museum in Dorchester where they are still on display. One lion is in the Natural History Museum, the whereabouts of the remaining two are unknown. Stevens always spoke of the finished work as his “cat” and it was only in recent years that his secret became known.

Roger Sligo

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Mark Myers – Meet the Brain SHORTLY before Christmas I was contacted by one of our drivers Mark Myers (Whisky 90), who was excitedly explaining about a TV show he had recently made for the National Geographic Channel, which would be broadcast to one-hundred and fifty-four countries from February 2016.

The programme was to do with cabbie’s brains having a larger Hippocampus. This is a part of the brain associated with navigation in birds and other animals and they say cabbies enlarge this area of the brain by studying the knowledge. So arrangements were made for us to meet and to find out what his TV roll was all about. Mark has a background in stand-up comedy and script-writing and in which he has had some reasonable success. It was hardly surprising therefore, that Mark, when we met, would be a good talker and his story would just flow.

“I first heard about this part in “Brain Games” through Radio Taxis.”

Mark said. “It came up on the screen that they wanted a cab-driver in his forties that wasn’t scared of filming. I had already done some film work and stand-up comedy in front of a live audience so that wouldn’t faze me, although my background was really in writing comedy. They were offering to pay £500 per day, but the only problem was that I’m not in my forties – I’m fifty-three. I phoned the production agency and said I could meet all the credentials except on my age, I confirmed my age and their answer was ‘We’ll tell you how old you are - if we like you!’” He continued “They asked me to come to their office the next day, where they would do a screen test which would last about half-hour. The next day I went as arranged to the casting agency in Percy Street and met a young girl who appeared to be in her early twenties. She asked me a bit about myself, how long I’d been cabbing and that sort of thing. I told her over thirty years, she then asked me the usual things like had I ever picked-up anyone famous? Who was my very first famous passenger? I told her Kenneth Williams, she asked me who he was!” It was at this point that Mark’s comedy act took over as he went into his impersonation of Kenneth Williams ‘Ho Matron – frying tonight’ which sounded great, especially doing the Kenneth Williams facial expressions which was spot-on and made me laugh. I could see he must have pulled off similar stunts during his stand-up comedy routine. Name dropping, Mark mentioned another early celebrity Telly Savalas and still the young lady had no idea giving him blank looks. “What about Noel Gallagher I have often picked him up on his Radio Taxis account?” She recognised Gallagher’s name much to Mark’s relief. “I must have spoken to the girl at the casting agency for about half hour before she told me there were quite a few other cab drivers who had come forward and she had to choose just three to put to the producers in America. The next day she phoned me up and told me the producer said when he saw me – ‘That’s our man.’”

Mark thought of how much better it would be for him to be driving a brand new taxi for his TV role and showcasing the London taxi trade.

He contacted the ‘Icon’ makers – London Taxi Company (LTC) at their head office and asked them if they would like to give him a free loan of a brand new taxi for promotional purposes, explaining about the TV show which would be seen pretty much all over the world. TLC sells their taxi-cabs pretty much worldwide, so this would be a good advertisement for their taxis. Within an hour after his request someone from LTC came back to him and said they would be delighted to assist and they would have one ready for him at Brewery Road. Mark told

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me: “They just couldn’t have done anymore, they were really helpful.

The taxi had only 25 miles on the clock so it was a pleasure to drive.”

On the first day of filming Mark told of how he was made to drive across Westminster Bridge several times and only to react and stop when he was hailed by a member of the film crew. It was to appear as though the taxi they stopped was just passing by and picked at random.

He was asked by the producer (all part of the script) if he would like to partake in a TV game show and would he drive them to Kent! In front of dozens of onlookers his taxi was fitted with cameras on the bonnet and the producer and crew boarded his taxi. They were also followed by a van that was to film the outside shots of the taxi.

Mark continued “The first day of filming was to take place at Hever Castle in Kent, on what turned out to be the hottest day of last year.

They had a costume for me to wear which consisted of something I have

never worn before, a flat cap which was two sizes too small for me, a blue jumper, jeans and trainers. I was then tested in the main Maze at Hever Castle against an American PhD maths student called Sam and a ten year old girl who was a spelling champion. They put five flags at various points around the Maze, they took us in the Maze to show us where they had planted the flags and later on us three contestants had to go in singularly and find the flags. The object of the test was to see who could find the flags first and if it would be me, by having an over developed hippocampus, which is a Greek word meaning Seahorse (as in Hippopotamus), the area of the brain that looks like a Seahorse which has a memory of special awareness and navigation.” Mark told me that he came back first, Sam came second and the little girl ended up getting lost!

Mark recalled: “The next day’s filming they had fixed six hidden cameras in my cab. I had to pick-up at Starbucks in Berkley Street, where a woman would approach each time I waited and put one contestant in my taxi. The contestants had no idea what was happening and thought they were going for an interview with National Geographic TV - but they were really being tested on how much information I fed them which they could retain. I had to mention about my recent divorce and the fact that there are 29,000 streets in London – hopping from one thing to another. It was of key importance that I said the same things to all six of them, so I had to take each via the same route, and point out the same things.”

Mark told me that this part of the experiment was to see how men and women retain different things. “Men for instance tend to remember facts, where women tend to remember the emotional things. I think they expected the women to remember the name of my girlfriend, how long I’ve been divorced and how many children I have. The men it was thought, would recall how many taxi drivers there are in London and how many streets there are! But that part of the experiment I haven’t seen myself yet.”

By the time you read this Mark would have seen the finished programme, scheduled to be broadcast in America on 14 February and various other dates around the world. He assured me that it would also be available on their You Tube channel, so if you miss it and would like to see Mark in action you should be able to find it there.

Roger Sligo.

Southern Alarm Systems But don’t let the name fool you!

DO YOU remember way back in the 1980’s when having both sunshine and vinyl roofs fitted on your taxi was the in thing?

Another big selling point at the same time was the Putnam seats; drivers wouldn’t even bother renting a taxi unless one was fitted. Well the man doing most of these conversions for the cab trade was Steven Hall of Southern Alarm Systems (SAS).

Steve told me he started in Camberwell in 1975 fitting vinyl roofs to motor cars. He was doing contract work for Ford Main Dealers such as Fry’s of Lewisham, Peacocks of Balham and Gordons of Steven Hall Dulwich. Fords of Dagenham very nearly had a strike on their hands when a customer of theirs went to pick up his new car only to discover there was no vinyl roof fitted. Fords explained to their customer that it was impossible to hold up the production line to fit the odd car here and there with vinyl roofs. One day soon afterwards a senior member of Ford’s Dagenham staff was visiting Fry’s of Lewisham as one of Steve’s vinyl roof conversions came in. The man was overjoyed when he found out that someone like Steve could avert a strike and keep the customers satisfied fitting a vinyl roof of new cars, so Steve ended up getting the contract for all of Ford’s work.

Almost ten years later and Steve had moved his company to his Peckham workshop. One day a taxi driver came in asking if someone could remove the creases and splits that were in his vinyl roof which he said had been fitted unsatisfactory by some other company. Steve did the job so well that the cab driver gave him a glowing review in one of the taxi-trade papers – as we all know this trade has more to do with word of mouth than anything else, so from then on taxi work just started pouring in.

Suddenly our man was getting loads more taxi work than anything else, so much that he moved in with BeeJay Taxis in Three Colts Lane, as he was doing most of his work for them, taking over the arch now belonging to Karl of Globe Automatic Transmissions. This was a boom time, as already mentioned for Putnam seats, for vinyl and for sunshine roofs.

At the same time Margaret Thatcher’s government became aware of the growing car crime and there was pressure within the Putnam & Recaro Seats

motor industry to encourage more cars to be fitted with alarms.

Steve went to Leicester for a course to learn how to fit alarms, so after he passed his fitters course he naturally saw a market in fitting taxis with alarms (it was only very recently at this time that taxis acquired locks on the doors) and about the same time taxi drivers wanted electric windows, central locking and personal radios which had never been allowed to be fitted in taxis before. He changed his company name to Southern Alarm Systems and for the next few years became the cab trades’ most sought after alarm, central locking and electric window fitter.

As time went by and car and taxi manufacturers fitted alarms and electric windows in production models, Steve’s company moved back to upholstery and fitting taxi interiors for some of the biggest advertisers. The companies who have used his services include: American Airlines, United Airlines, Duke Jeans, Wimbledon ‘97 and he has even wrapped a cab in fur for the Lion King show.

When I visited his workshop he was busy fitting out the interior of an un-plated Fairway for weddings. I was surprised to learn that his company invented the carpet pack and the first cab he fitted was owned by Georgie Vyse, he ended up getting work from what was M&O’s and KPM. He bought Putnam taxi seats a few years ago from the late Jimmy Putnam, after the company moved out to Plymouth. He has a good team of workers including Chems who is Algerian and Julia who lives in the Tower of London (her husband is a Beefeater) they are skilled in repairing seats and headlining and will save you needing to spend more money on buying brand new.

So if you are in need of a replacement driver’s seat or need the repair of torn rear seats or want a fitted carpet pack or any of the other trimming repairs service, then go and see Steve, he is a really decent straight talking man who will look after you. In addition if you mention “Radio Taxis Mountview News Special Offer” – he will give you a 10% trade discount.

Southern Alarm Systems (SAS), The Arches, 41 Barnham Street, London SE1 2UU (Just off Tooley Street).

Tel: 020 7403 3002 Roger Sligo.

Wedding Taxi re-fit

Chems with Julia

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Roger Sligo asks: WIN £25 “Where am I?” *

“Where am I?” IN OUR last competition of 2015, we had a picture of seventeen poppies at a blocked-up window where the poppies are attached to metal bars and have been displayed for a few years. The clues mentioned an ex Prime Minister living close by – Tony Blair lives at Connaught Square. The site of execution also close by was the ancient tree at Tyburn, used as gallows which stood at Marble Arch.

The correct answer is Connaught Place just behind the junction with Edgware Road. Our worthy winner is Dave Dowding, (Whisky 96) who even went beyond the call of duty by sending in his own picture of the building – that’s what you call dedication!

Well Done Dave – £25 worth of M&S vouchers are on their way.

This month’s £25 competition is one small part of a frieze sculptured on a building in the City of London.

It also contains some curiosity value too, as the date has the last digit missing. Something that was established in AD185, but when or more importantly where? Did the workman rush off the job in a hurry before having time to complete

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the date? Is there more to this than a King or Queen could reveal? A Google search result of the date reads; “The Guest Star of AD185 must have been a Supernova” – Google can tell us most things, but it doesn’t give away details of where I am, more importantly – if you want to be our “Supernova” winner, can you?

If you think you know, send an email with your name and call sign to: MVN.editor@radiotaxis.co.uk or post by snail mail to: Where Am I Contest, Mountview News Editor, Mountview House Group Ltd., Suite 100 (Building 3), North London Business Park, Oakleigh Road South, LONDON N11 1GN. The winner who correctly names the location of this contest will receive a £25 M&S Gift Voucher!* Good luck!

Roger Sligo.

? ? ?

The Mountview Puzzler Page

CLUES ACROSS 8. Do away with 9. Snare 10. Radioactive gaseous element 11. Inhabitant of Iran 12. Catch sight of 13. Signal to arise 16. Rousing 19. Quick sharp bark 22. Virgin Mary 23. Capital of Ecuador 24. Strap 25. Stiff coarse hair

Jotting space

MOUNTVIEW SUDOKU Get your thinking cap on!

CLUES DOWN 1. Without hair 2. Capitulate 3. Demon 4. Selection 5. Athletic shoe 6. Pertaining to society 7. Web-footed aquatic bird 14. Worker 15. Crisp 17. Native of India 18. Close at hand 20. Expels 21. Fit out 22. Blend

HAVE A GO AT THIS ISSUE’S SUDOKU PUZZLE! The object is to write in the missing numbers in the empty boxes below. But to satisfy only one condition: each row, column and 3 x 3 box must contain the digits 1 through to 9 exactly once.

What could be simpler?

Hooked?

Well you can find many more Sudoko puzzles online FREE by going to: www.sudoku.cc

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