Taxi Driver Online

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!!!!!

I thought Warrington were all T&G members
And say hello to Bruno from me

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

on top of that a few years ago they allowed planing for a p/h office on a 3 space hack rank so we have to fight for a space on there, NOW they are are taking the rank away and giving it to p/h office !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOTS OF QUESTIONS BUT GET NO ANSWERS :?

If the police can't be bothered with the boy racers, who is going to be enforcing the "closed" rank?

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Grandad,

Least we forget, a district council must give notice to the chief officer of police for the police area in which the stand is situated and must also give public notice of the proposal by advertisement in at least one local newspaper circulating in the district and must take into consideration any objections or representations in respect of such proposal which may be made to it in writing within 28 days of the first publication of such notice.

I assume the same applies in the situation where an order is amended or revoked but you could always ask Mr Bruno to write a letter to the council within the 28 days allowed by law stating the grievances of the local Taxi trade.

You could also ask Mr Bruno of the T&G to dig out relevant case law on plying for hire at a forbidden place, loitering and also touting as I am sure they might come in useful in the near future.

Regards

JD

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Copyright notice © The contents of this post are copyright of JD and are not to be reproduced outside of TDO without written permission.

Object to the traffic order, then lobby councillors as to why the change is a big step backwards.

And if that doesn't work, then at night just rank up in the same place.

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IDFIMH

I would speak to Bruno.... he might have some good news.... and even better news later next week......

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Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!

the order to revoke the ranks has been put in the local paper to give notice. the order is on behalf of the police using anti-social behaviour and health and safety as a reason. the health and safety issue is caused by a large number of people outside a taxi rank which is also has a private hire office on it (which warrington borough council permitted) and bridge st being used by everyone at night time to fly up and down (the council could put a banning order on public cars at night time)

there could be better options to try before taking the ranks from us and giving them to a private hire office (which will stay open as their customers dont cause any trouble !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
you could

1 make bridge st one-way
2 marshalls on ranks
3 make private hire pick up at different point not on the rank or main road
4 more police at 3am instead of vanishing on change over for a hour
5 stop issuing pub licences in that area
6 stop the pubs doing special promotions (2 shots £1.00 etc)

these are just a few things that could be tried instead of moving the ranks and the problem away from the main drinking area. which would just be moving the problem not addressing it

On Clumber Street in Mansfield where all the clubs and bars are there's a no traffic policy in order on a Friday and Saturday night, the road is only open to Taxis and buses between the hours of 2300 and 0400.