May 8 2007



A TAXI driver could lose his licence after being accused of verbally abusing disabled people in two separate incidents.

Complaints were made against the cabbie after he was alleged to have been reluctant to secure a wheelchair-bound passenger because they were “only going round the corner”.

And, in a second incident, the man has been accused of telling a disabled motorist “F**k you” when he was asked to move his taxi from a disabled parking berth.

Renfrewshire Council’s taxi enforcement officer Roy Hadden investigated both complaints, which occurred within a week of each other, and it has been decided by the Regulatory Functions Board that there is a case to answer against the driver.

The first complaint against the cabbie was made after he arrived to take a disabled man and his carer from Espedair Street in Paisley to the town’s Royal Alexandra Hospital.

The carer asked the driver for help and, after the alleged outburst, he did help to strap in the wheelchair passenger.

But the carer claims this was not done properly and she had to keep a “constant hold of the chair” on the drive to the hospital.

When she looked around for the taxi driver’s badge number with a view to making a complaint, she said he asked her if she “would like a picture”.

The cabbie does not deny he said it was the carer’s job to strap in the wheelchair-bound passenger but has accused the woman of saying: “You f***ing drivers are all the same down at the rank.”

The second complaint was made after the taxi driver parked in a disabled berth outside the Farmfoods store in Causeyside Street, Paisley.

When a motorist who was displaying a blue disabled badge in his vehicle pointed out to the cabbie that he was illegally parked, he responded by saying: “How do I know that is your badge?”

The council has heard that the cabbie did eventually move his taxi but is alleged to have given the motorist a “one finger rude sign” as he drove away.

The man said he was upset by the incident so reported the driver.

A council spokesperson said the cabbie has now been asked to attend a hearing at which he could have his operator’s licence suspended if he is found to be “no longer a fit and proper person to hold a licence.”

Renfrewshire taxi-drivers, be it at the Paisley Gilmour Street rank outside the train station or at Glasgow Airport, are notorious for their rudeness

All except me

Here we go again.

My LA insist that they cannot refuse anyone a license because it is a basic human right to be allowed to work.

so whose fault is it?

Everyone's.

The Gov for not being strong enough, councils for not being strong enough, and the trade for not being strong enough.