TfL set to regulate pedicabs in London for the first time amid safety concerns
The consultation, carried out by Transport for London (TfL) found that out of nearly 7,700 respondents, 75% currently felt unsafe while using a pedicab in the capital.
The rickshaws, common sights in London's main tourist destinations, are not currently regulated.
Nearly all (97%) of participants backed mandatory insurance for pedicab operators, 95% support the introduction of criminal background checks for drivers, and 85% believe that pedicab fares are too expensive.
Draft policy proposals include a TfL licensing system, along the same lines as that currently in place for London taxi drivers, with requirements including a minimum age of 18, a UK or EEA-valid drivers' licence, and English language skills.
TfL are also considering the introduction of insurance requirements, alongside safety equipment mandates.
The proposals could come into force from 2026 – but will become more detailed over the coming months, and are subject to a second consultation at the end of the year.
The use of music by pedicab drivers sparked particular frustration among the survey's respondents – including over 2,400 comments, double the number relating to any other topic.
96% of participants were in favour of volume limitations on music and other audio from pedicabs, and 78% believe these controls should be in place 'all the time'.
Helen Chapman, TfL's director of Licensing & Regulation, said: 'Pedicabs can provide a unique and green way to see the capital.
'However, they have an impact on the safety of the road network and are currently unregulated.
'We look forward to working with the pedicab industry to ensure it is run fairly and safely and continues to be a sustainable mode of transport.'
The move comes in the wake of parliamentary calls for regulation last year – which culminated in the Pedicabs (London) Act, granting TfL the statutory powers necessary to go through with the licensing system.
The transport authority proposes to take the lead on enforcement of any new regulations themselves, with all expenses recouped through the fees for pedicab licences.
In a campaign response to the survey, the London Pedicab Welfare Association (LPWA) said: 'While the intention behind this requirement is to ensure the safety of passengers and regulate the industry, it has created challenges for pedicab drivers who do not possess a driving licence.'
The LPWA instead proposed alternatives, including the introduction of a theory test for drivers to obtain their licence.
Ros Morgan, chief executive at the Heart of London Business Alliance, welcomed the proposals, saying: 'For far too long, members of the public have been at the mercy of rogue operators who do nothing to enhance the reputation of the West End.
'Implementation of the scheme could not come soon enough.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
24 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
The witchcraft artist, the Christian anarchist and the daughter of an NHS surgeon behind Palestine Action's plot to attack more RAF bases - as ringleaders 'have 150 targets in their sights'
On the day Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told Parliament she intended to ban the militant campaign group Palestine Action under Section 3 of the Terrorism Act after its notorious break-in at RAF Brize Norton, the far-Left group staged a show of strength. Dozens of police vans and ambulances were deployed along the Strand in London last week as around 500 supporters, some of them hiding their faces with scarves, gathered in Trafalgar Square. One, who was later questioned by police, wore an outfit resembling the concentration camp uniform handed to Jewish prisoners during the Holocaust. Clashes between police and protesters led to 13 arrests, with seven people charged – one for a racially aggravated public-order offence. So just who are the ringleaders of this radical group, and what are their plans? To find out, The Mail on Sunday infiltrated one of a series of webinars on Zoom, as Palestine Action capitalised on its notoriety by embarking on a recruitment campaign. 'Nobody here is doing anything illegal by being here,' says the woman leading the 'crash course'. She is understood to be Turkish-Cypriot artist Gamze Sanli, whose work 'weaves folklore and mythology, abolition and political resistance, death and witchcraft'. In 2022 she used a tourist pass to enter the House of Commons before squirting ketchup – to represent blood – on a statue of former foreign secretary Arthur Balfour, author of the 1917 'Balfour declaration' that set out British support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. She was found not guilty of criminal damage at a subsequent trial. In her webinar she gives a list of primary and secondary 'targets' for direct action (which includes breaking into factories, where she urges us to smash 'everything you can with a sledgehammer') and tips on what to do when we're arrested. Remarkably, given the cross-party condemnation of the Brize Norton attack, fresh targets include three other RAF bases: RAF Cranwell and RAF Barkston Heath, both in Lincolnshire, and RAF Valley, in Anglesey, North Wales. Yesterday, it was reported that the group had 148 UK targets in all, according to a map on its website – including the Ministry of Defence in Whitehall, the 11 locations of insurance firm Allianz (for its supposed links to Israel's defence industry) and, bizarrely, Shannon Airport in Ireland. If Ms Cooper's legislation is successful, Palestine Action could go on Britain's list of 81 proscribed organisations this week, rubbing shoulders with Al Qaeda, the IRA and Hamas. But many on this Zoom call seem to have been spurred into action by what they see as the Government's over-zealous response to the Brize Norton incident. At least two people broke into the RAF base at night. One rode a scooter up to an Airbus Voyager – a mid-air refuelling aircraft – and sprayed paint into its engine, allegedly causing damage valued at up to £25 million. On Friday, a woman aged 29 and men aged 36 and 24 were arrested on suspicion of terror offences relating to the incident. A 41-year-old woman was also arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender On Friday, a woman aged 29 and men aged 36 and 24 were arrested on suspicion of terror offences relating to the incident. A 41-year-old woman was also arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. A note preceding last Wednesday's Zoom meeting claimed many new followers would be joining in 'solidarity'. A fundraiser set up to challenge its banning has already raised more than £180,000, and human-rights solicitor Gareth Peirce has been lined up to represent the group in court. Her past clients include Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg – whose Islamist advocacy group Cage, which once praised Islamic State executioner Jihadi John as a 'beautiful young man', is closely linked to Palestine Action. The amount being raised has reportedly led to Home Office fears that Iran may be bankrolling the group's activities through proxies. But Palestine Action insists it is funded by 'ordinary people' and condemned any Iran link as a smear. The group says its support base is made up of anyone from nursery teachers to surgeons, ranging in age from 18 to 80. Wednesday's online workshop was very much a silver-haired affair, with a dozen or so people of pensionable age, including a retired reverend. But the founders of Palestine Action are rather more hardcore. It was set up in 2020 by Huda Ammori, the daughter of a former NHS surgeon, who is Palestinian by birth, in partnership with 'Christian anarchist' and former Extinction Rebellion member Richard Barnard, 51. Ms Ammori told The Guardian yesterday that she found the group's proposed banning 'hard to absorb'. 'I don't have a single conviction, but if this goes through I would have co-founded what will be a terrorist organisation,' she said. Now 31, she gained a reputation as a serial protester while studying international business and finance at Manchester University. Her activism coincided with Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of Labour and, in an article for The New Arab magazine in 2022, she revealed it was her Iraqi mother who insisted she join the party. She said: 'This was quite confusing given that Tony Blair, under the Labour government, led the invasion and destruction of Iraq.' She added: 'However, this time round, the renewal of hope was alive, with Jeremy Corbyn, a committed anti-imperialist activist and politician, elected as leader.' But by 2019 Mr Corbyn had lost the leadership and, under his successor Keir Starmer, Ms Ammori saw 'a bias towards apartheid and imperialism'. She claimed successive governments had 'supported Israel's apartheid regime over the Palestinian people', and this led her to launch Palestine Action. Its goal is to attack bodies behind arms exports to Israel, particularly the UK sites of Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems, which was described in Wednesday's online 'crash course' as the 'Zionist manifestation in the UK'. An Elbit factory in Staffordshire became its first target. In 2020, activists climbed on its roof and spent three nights wreaking havoc with hammers and paint. In an interview with Prospect magazine last year, Ms Ammori recalled how she felt when she looked at the wrecked building as police carried her down on a stretcher (the group teaches activists to 'go floppy' when being arrested to cause disruption). 'I just remember saying how beautiful it all looked,' she said. Since then, its tactics have become increasingly militant. Ten members allegedly used an old prison van to break into an Elbit Systems site in Bristol last August in an act described as a 'ram raid'. Eighteen were arrested and remanded in custody, and will be tried this year. Ms Ammori was not involved. In March, activists on a cherry picker targeted Elbit in Bristol again, spraying it with red paint and using a sledgehammer on a rope to smash windows. This militancy seems a far cry from Ms Ammori's upbringing in a detached house in a gated cul-de-sac in an affluent area of Bolton. But she appears to have been radicalised young. She claims her great-grandfather was killed by British soldiers in the 1936 uprising in Palestine, a major Arab revolt against British rule and increasing Jewish immigration. She also endured turmoil in 2013 when her father, Professor Basil Ammori, left the family home and moved in with a woman 30 years his junior, whom he later married. In 2014, she and her father were said to have had a violent doorstep altercation after she allegedly posted his new wife's name on a personal ads website causing men to post messages asking for sex. She also claimed he had 'f***** off with a white whore' and had a 'b****** son', a General Medical Council tribunal heard in 2016. Accused of hitting Ms Ammori when she confronted him at his home in Altrincham, Cheshire, the obesity surgeon was cleared. Ms Ammori's mother declined to discuss her daughter's militant activities with the MoS. Richard Barnard has a similarly conflicted background. Among his 30 tattoos are Buddhist chants, an IRA slogan, 'freedom' in Arabic and 'all cops are b*****ds' in code. Once part of the Christian anarchist group Catholic Worker, he told Prospect he was now Muslim. He is said to have been in a hardline faction of the environmental protest group Extinction Rebellion (XR) around founder Roger Hallam, who also established Just Stop Oil. Hallam is serving a four-year prison sentence for conspiring to disrupt traffic over the M25. Barnard was arrested in 2019 but later acquitted for protesting on top of Tube trains in an XR stunt. He is due to be tried next year for allegedly eliciting support for Hamas and encouraging criminal damage. At a demo in Manchester the day after the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, he reportedly told the crowd: 'When we hear the resistance, the Al-Aqsa Flood [as Hamas called the attack] we must turn that flood into a tsunami of the whole world.' Other supporters include NHS orthopaedic doctor Rahmeh Aladwan, who on Thursday reposted a tweet from Iranian leader Ali Khamenei, which read: 'I offer my congratulations on the victory over the fallacious Zionist regime.' She has also tweeted: 'Let the record show that I support [Palestine Action]... upholders of truth and justice. Our British heroes.' Then there is Paul Shortt, 52, from Dumfries, Scotland, who posed with what appears to be a handgun on social media alongside a post stating: 'Resistance is not terrorism! Resistance is justified. When people are occupied. Resist! By any means necessary.' He was one of ten activists who attacked Elbit's Bristol HQ in 2022. He received a suspended jail term. Palestine Action has produced a manual on how to plot disruption. Members should organise themselves into cells of three or four, use 'burner' phones and code names, cover their faces and pay for any supplies in cash. Today, it is due to carry out a 'training day' in Leicester for recruits, who are expected to 'harness the strength of the grassroots and direct it towards bringing down Israel's war machine'. More are scheduled for London, Liverpool and Glasgow next month. In our webinar, Gamze Sanli says members are expected to make a 'level of sacrifice'. But in a slide marked 'police station tips', detainees are told they can ask for 'a free tracksuit'. These middle-class activists seem ready to part with their liberty for the cause. But some home comforts clearly remain essential.
The Independent
30 minutes ago
- The Independent
Two further terror arrests after vandalism of planes at RAF base
Two more people have been arrested on suspicion of a terror offence after planes at an RAF base were vandalised in a move claimed by soon-to-be banned campaign group Palestine Action. Counter Terrorism Policing South East said two men aged 22 and 24, both from London, were taken into police custody after the incident at RAF Brize Norton on June 20. They are accused of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism, contrary to Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000. On Friday, a woman, aged 29, of no fixed address, and two men, aged 36 and 24, from London, were also arrested accused of the same offence. A 41-year-old woman, of no fixed address, was also arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender, police said. Palestine Action previously posted footage online showing people inside the Oxfordshire base, with one person appearing to ride an electric scooter up to an Airbus Voyager air-to-air refuelling tanker, before spray-painting into its jet engine. The Home Secretary Yvette Cooper made the decision to proscribe Palestine Action following the incident, with the arrests coming just days before the proscription is set to come into force. Support for the group will become a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison when the ban comes into effect as soon as next Friday. Palestine Action has staged demonstrations that have included spraying the London offices of Allianz Insurance with red paint and vandalising US President Donald Trump's Turnberry golf course in South Ayrshire. As she announced plans for Palestine Action's proscription, Ms Cooper said the group's methods have become 'more aggressive', with its members showing 'willingness to use violence'. At the time of the incident, the group said it had 'directly intervened in the genocide and prevented crimes against the Palestinian people' by 'decommissioning two military planes'. Palestine Action said Thursday's arrests 'further demonstrates that proscription is not about enabling prosecutions under terrorism laws – it's about cracking down on non-violent protests which disrupt the flow of arms to Israel during its genocide in Palestine'.
Daily Mail
34 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Labour prepared to approve BP takeover by Shell
The Government would be prepared to approve a takeover of BP by its larger rival Shell rather than allow it to fall into overseas hands. The informal guidance in Whitehall was provided before last week's reports that Shell was in early-stage talks about a possible takeover of its weaker competitor. Shell issued a statement to the stock exchange saying that no such talks were taking place. Under Britain's strict takeover rules, it is not permitted to make an offer for six months. It would require BP to invite Shell into the process should there be a bid from other sources. City investment bankers have been floating the idea of a Shell-BP deal to create a London-based European oil champion on the scale of the American behemoths for some months. Such a transaction would inevitably require scrutiny by anti-trust authorities on both sides of the Atlantic. Shell chief executive Wael Sawan publicly has made it clear that his target is to keep returning funds to shareholders through dividends and buybacks, which have been running at £3 billion a quarter. A takeover of BP is seen at Anglo-Dutch Shell headquarters as a distraction from its core mission. Nevertheless, the company felt it necessary to take informal soundings with Ministers and officials, should the opportunity to become involved with BP arise. Shell's last major UK takeover came when it bought BG Group, once the exploration arm of British Gas, for £46 billion a decade ago. Shell, with a stock market value of £150 billion, has accelerated away from BP in recent years. With a valuation of less than half that, BP would be easy pickings for most of the big oil firms. Investor interest in big oil has increased since Donald Trump returned to the White House with his 'drill, baby, drill' mantra. The open hostility of Keir Starmer's Government to fossil fuels has also softened in recent weeks. The 12-day war between Israel and Iran has been a sharp reminder of how important oil and gas is to the UK's energy and national security. BP's low valuation of £58.8 billion makes it an attractive takeover proposition for its rivals. It has been beset by problems in the boardroom, in Russia and in the newly named Gulf of America. It carries net debt of £20 billion on its balance sheet. BP is seeking to refocus on oil and gas exploration and production after flirting with becoming a carbon-zero energy group under Bernard Looney, who left under a cloud in 2023. Current chief executive Murray Auchincloss has set a challenging target to reduce net debt to £14 billion by 2027. It is also under pressure from activist investor Elliott Capital Management to improve early returns even if it means cutting back on capital investment. However, it is not clear that the big American oil companies would be interested in buying BP. Exxon Mobil is very focused on the Americas, having struck black gold in the Guyana basin. It is also deeply involved in drilling, fracking and extraction of natural gas in the Permian Basin in Texas and New Mexico with its $64 billion (£47 billion) takeover of Pioneer Natural Resources. Rival Chevron also has been doubling down on domestic development and is pursuing a $50 billion takeover of Hess Corporation, although this has been bogged down in an arbitration process. As the former Anglo-Persian oil company founded in 1909, BP has a long history of global exploration and good relations with the British Government. It has lost none of its adventurous nature and has been developing new production and markets in Azerbaijan, India and Indonesia and is a big investor in Iraqi production. The Government will fear for the fate of such a vital flag-flier for Britain at home and abroad, and for the risk to jobs, exports and oil trading should it fall into overseas hands. A loss of its London stock exchange quotation would be a devastating blow to the UK. Some City advisers have been alerted that their services will be needed should, for any reason, the current six-month cooling-off period on a Shell-BP transaction be interrupted.
