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SURVEY: NO NEED FOR MORE TAXIS
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STUART ABEL
12:00 - 18 May 2005
Plymouth does not need any more black cabs, according to a city council survey. Consultants have claimed that there 'is no significant unmet demand' for hackney carriages.
They have said that the average wait on ranks in the city is just 35 seconds.
Consultants who carried out 1,000 interviews told the authority that less than 10 per cent of people reported problems in getting a taxi. Cabs wait for around 15 minutes on average between fares.
The council's cabinet has now been recommended to keep the present limit of 359 vehicle licences in the city - despite applications by taxi operators for more plates.
Taxifast chairman John Preece is fighting a complicated and protracted legal battle with the council for another 29 hackney carriage licences.
He today said the council's survey was 'full of flaws'.
The council can only refuse hackney carriage licences for safety reasons or if it can show there is no demand for their services.
The survey, which will be considered by the council next Tuesday, claims that 46.6 per cent of people hiring on a rank had no wait. Ninety-one per cent said they had no problem at all in getting a taxi.
Less than five per cent cited delay as the main deterrent to using a hackney carriage. And 52 per cent felt they were receiving good value for money.
The consultants said that compared to 65 other reported authorities passengers in Plymouth had a shorter than average wait.
Cllr Sue Dann, the city council's portfolio holder for transport, said: "This survey was carried out at the request of the Office of Fair Trading and the Department of Transport so we could make an informed decision about what sort of policy we were going to make in the future. The survey was to see whether there was any significant unmet demand in the city as a whole for hackney carriages.
"In terms of the robustness of the survey, these consultants have been used in surveys up and down the country."
The cabinet is recommended to carry out a review of the demand for taxis after changes in the city centre's transport infrastructure.
Meanwhile, Mr Preece is to challenge a crown court ruling last week which allows the council to use the evidence of the survey when it defends his company's appeal against the authority's alleged refusal of the 29 hackney carriage licences. Mr Preece said that the study cannot be used by the council.
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So they conduct the survey at the quiet time of year and also publish what ranks were being monitored for the survey, and then say theres no unmet demand. well theres a surprise.
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/rolleyes.gif)