Regarding the report about the Minehead taxi driver who wanted to take on a licence returned by another driver in order to introduce a fully electric taxi to the town (Free Press March 15), I really cannot understand what is happening here.

The new Somerset West and Taunton Council shadow authority recently signed up to declaring a climate emergency, and I have read on West Somerset Council’s website their Climate Change Strategy and Carbon Management Plan.

In the strategy it says: “By reducing our CO2 emissions we will reduce our reliance on fossil fuel energy” and “Developing a low carbon economy is our community strategy to reduce our CO2 to prepare for changes ahead.”

In its own Carbon Management Plan it states that one of the benefits of its plan is “leading by example and providing opportunities for the community and businesses to learn how they can also make financial savings and reduce CO2 consumption”.

Surely the taxi driver in question is trying to do exactly that - save money and reduce emissions, and how is the council leading by example in turning down this application?

At the licensing committee meeting on November 27 it was made clear that Mr Griffiths was not applying for a new licence which would have to be for a fully accessible for the disabled vehicle, but, rather, an existing and currently unused licence which was for a saloon-type vehicle.?

During discussion, members of the committee spoke of the Government target for all new cars to be electric or zero emission, that there were advantages to electric cars, that it would be an incentive to other drivers if they saw a zero emissions vehicle being used and, finally, that the licence should be issued with the condition that it was for electric use only and therefore exempt from the regulations on disabled access.

However, even after all this positive discussion, the only resolution made, and passed, at the meeting was that the licencing manager should investigate the use of electric vehicles and amend the policy for the future and the new council.?

?In the meantime, Mr. Griffiths has a brand new vehicle sitting all ready to go but which he cannot use for taxi purposes!

On a personal note, when I take a taxi home from town, wherever possible I try to use a saloon-type taxi as I find the larger fully accessible vehicles difficult to access.

If, as seems likely, in future all taxis will have to be of the larger kind, some of us will find this difficult. Surely we need both kinds of taxis and if there is an option to use one which is climate friendly, then I know which I would choose.?

Sandra Slade, Hayfield Road, Minehead.