A disabled London councillor was left in tears and forced to wheel herself home in temperatures exceeding 30°C after the Taxicard scheme failed to provide her with suitable transport.
Cllr Maria McKenna, Lewisham councillor and the borough’s Disabled People’s Champion, had used the Taxicard scheme to book a wheelchair-accessible black cab home after attending council business on 29 July. Her Taxicard profile clearly records that she requires wheelchair-accessible transport due to her mobility needs. After waiting an hour and 40 minutes in the heat — during which she received repeated automated calls asking whether she still needed the booking — she was eventually allocated an Addison Lee vehicle that was entirely unsuitable for her wheelchair. An attempt to book an alternative journey through Uber Access also failed, as no accessible vehicles were available. Feeling unwell and with no other option, Cllr McKenna made the decision to wheel herself home in her electric wheelchair — a journey that should have taken 11 minutes by car.
Taxicard is a subsidised door-to-door scheme run by London Councils, a partnership of London’s boroughs, providing licensed taxis and private hire vehicles for residents with serious mobility impairments who struggle to use public transport. London Councils sets its own performance targets for the service: 95% of advance bookings are meant to arrive within 15 minutes of the requested time, and 95% of ASAP bookings within 30 minutes of the booking being made. Cllr McKenna’s experience fell well outside both.
Mayor of Lewisham, Liam Shrivastava, called the incident “deeply concerning,” and said his concern extends beyond one individual case, noting that Cllr McKenna had clearly recorded her accessibility requirements and yet still found herself unable to secure suitable transport home after carrying out public duties. He said the situation raises important questions about how the scheme is operating and whether enough wheelchair-accessible vehicles are available to meet demand. Cllr McKenna said the problem isn’t limited to Taxicard, describing wider accessibility issues she’s faced across London’s transport network, including trains, buses and the Underground, and said that as Disabled People’s Champion she intends to use her voice for disabled Londoners more broadly. ComCab London, the contracted vehicle provider for the scheme, has since apologised and worked with Cllr McKenna to resolve the issue, with London Councils stating it had been assured she received a high standard of customer service throughout — though that assurance sits awkwardly against the account of what actually happened on the day.
For drivers and operators, the case is a reminder of just how tight the margins are on accessible fleet availability across London — and how quickly a booking system can let down exactly the passengers it’s designed to protect when a suitable vehicle simply isn’t there to send.
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