Taxi Driver Online

Station stand-off as waiting taxi is fined


Angry taxi drivers blocked traffic outside Brighton Station during rush hour after a parking row with police.

Drivers held the impromptu strike after one of them was ticketed by police as he waited to get on to the taxi rank.

The strike happened at 6pm on Wednesday night after cabbie Graham Kinsey was handed the fine.

Fellow cabbies were so furious they refused to budge from the rank, causing chaos on roads around the station. The drivers eventually ended their strike after 90 minutes.

Commuter Adrian Newnham, 39, returning from his banking job in London, was caught in the mess but had sympathies with the drivers.

He said: “Taxi drivers cannot move once they are in that rank.”

A Sussex Police spokeswoman said the row was over the £60 ticket.

She said: “A driver was issued with a ticket because he was causing an obstruction and wouldn’t follow police instructions to move on.

“Certainly we understand that the taxi rank is too small and there are clear issues.

“Our road policing unit and taxi licensing officer are looking at that.”

Andy Charalambous, vicechairman of taxi firm Streamline said the rank was mainly used by independent cabbies and that the cause of the problem was too many taxis had permission to use the area.

He said: “There are 17 spaces for taxis to stop and the company that issues the permits for £420 a year has issued 313. If a taxi goes up there and the spaces are taken they should officially move on somewhere else and what happened there they always end up hanging at the station.”

He added that a possible solution had been discussed in the past where taxis would queue at the back of the station and wait until there was space at the front.

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokesman added that if cab firms wanted to speak to the authority to ask for help in finding a solution to the problem it would be more than happy to do so.

A Southern spokesman said: “Brighton and Hove is a very busy city with many events taking place most of the time. The rate of rotation of taxis at the station is usually quite swift which means queues rarely form at the station.

“Southern meets regularly with the taxi association and if this is becoming an issue, then the question of permit allocation may well appear on the agenda of our next meeting.”

A history of friction It is not the first time that rows have become heated at the rank outside Brighton train station.

In July taxi drivers held a protest after two cabbies were arrested after a similar parking row.

Brighton city centre was brought to a standstill when scores of taxi drivers pulled up at busy ranks and got out of their cars in a two-hour protest over the arrests.

The arrested drivers had been queuing at a drop-off point in Queen’s Road to get on to the station rank when they were told to move from the double yellow lines.

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Isn't the rank on railway property?
Aberdeen Station rank is and policing is done by British Transport Police, not the local cops.

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

He wasn't on the rank was he. He couldn't get on the rank, it was full.

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Grandad,

Just because he wasn't on the rank, doesn't mean he wasn't on railway property. Up here the railway owns a huge amount of land around the station.

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

If the police issued the ticket, it would be a fair assumption that he was on the highway and not private land. It's hard enough to get the police to do their job on public roads without them going onto private land.

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Grandad,

If the parking is decriminalised the driver may have been causing an obstruction?

CC

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

The report did say he was causing an obstruction.

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Grandad,

and thats without reading it

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

But you posted it.

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Grandad,

The rank is indeed on railway property, but the ticket was given to the driver, I believe, on the public highway. As he was blocking the street on his way into the station.

Along with no doubt dozens more who seem to believe they can block the road when they see fit.

To me the situation is one of their own making. If a rank is full go find another rank.

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IDFIMH

We have a similar problem 10 rank spaces for about 100 permits (I'm not totally sure about the latter figure but, it illustrates the point).

The local station manager has been quite helful in trying to identify a solution but all we get from 'rail head office' is a continual regurgitation of the permit conditions: Thou shalt not over-rank. A few paragraphs down and they're rattling about ensuring there are enough cabs to serve their customers!

Which way do they want it, FFS!!!!!!!!

THEIR WAY!

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Is this another one?

Was'nt there a similar story on here from a few months ago?

I blame the socialist influence of the local union, it's causing drivers to become rebels without a cause.

Very Good

On a serious note, we do have members involved in this, and we do have a representative talking to Southern Railways or who ever they are this week.

The problem in this area is the L/A's decision to surround this station with bus stops, apart from the 17 spaces there is no other legal place for the 300 odd permit holders to park. We did suggest a feeder from Queens road leading upto the station, but sadley not content with the £100,000's of subsidys the bus company cream each year they also want every single road to be a permanant bus stop around the station.

The Station Manager have suggested that the Cabs are moved to the back of the station, where there is slightly more space, however our members are less than impressed with this suggestion due to the structure of the roads leading to the back of the station being small and already congested.

There is another option of a service road under the station which was used many years ago by our Taxis, however, again the station are not impressed due to security and emissions.

A difficult situation which hopefully will soon be resolved.

Regards

BB

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Mick Hildreth (07814 032002)
GMB PDB P39 Southern Region Branch Secretary
mick.hildreth@gmbtaxis.org.uk
www.gmbpdb.org.uk

i think i can see the root cause of the problem....

first of all, the permits should be colour coded

the rank spaces (and some overflow) should be on a weekly rota sharing out days, nights, weekends, bank holidays, etc, on a rotating basis

this would chop the available HC down to only 75 per shift, a much more manageable figure for the thieving issuer to charge less per permit for, £125 a year would be plenty