plans for Warrington borough council to place a prohibition of traffic order on lower bridge st and revoke major night time ranks from a soon as 19th of June 2008 were advertised in last weeks local paper the news came as a shock to the hackney trade to say the least as no consultation has taken place. the council advertised to revoke these ranks bridge st west side fronting propetys112-120, east side fronting properties 83-87 and east side fronting property 115 and then reinstated them as part time ranks operating from 05:00 am until 23:00 Friday - Monday these ranks are the main night time ranks in the town centre situated in the same street as the majority of the bars and clubs the council reasons for removing these ranks are on health and safety grounds as they fear the public are at risk from being run over by passing cars not the taxis however the problem is mainly caused by boy racers who use the street to parade there modified cars and occasionally as a drag strip yet the police have never seemed to be bothered about it I have never seen a policeman pull the cars over and tell the young lads off they seem to engaged in leaning on a fence at the top of lower bridge street chatting away and eyeing up the talent. the council propose to place taxi ranks about 200-300 yards around the corner out of the way on academy way so the towns 160 odd hackney carriages have a place to stand not to say the public will have to walk that far as there is a local private hire office on the corner of bridge st and academy who will be the biggest benefactor and now get first dibs on fares leaving the hackneys playing poor cousins hoping for scrapes to be thrown there way private concerns put ahead of public transport unbelievable and after the council has released of the last few years over 50 new wav hackney licences with a nice set of conditions to ensure you have to borrow quite a bit from the bank or maybe secure a loan against your home such as wav must not be rear loading, wav must be no older than 3 years on plating, wav must carry at least 5 passengers leaving the drivers with the choice of e7 and tx mainly and also leaving them from £18,000 - £34,000 in debt and now the council has decided to pull the rug from underneath them and take away the ranks that allow them make the money to pay for these vehicles and also yeah! Feed there families and pay the bills! To say the hackney trade in Warrington are angry is a major understatement oh and they also want to release another 30 hackney licenses later in the year pure lunacy!!!!!
