Taxi Driver Online

Call to cut Midlothian taxi numbers is thrown out

Calls to reduce the number of taxi licences in Midlothian have been rejected. Councillors voted to keep the number of plates at 52, despite a request from the Midlothian Taxi Owners Association to reduce the number by 10 through natural wastage.

A survey, carried out on behalf of the council, interviewed taxi users at local ranks and supermarket pick-up points. It appeared most passengers were making short journeys and it was common to find taxis – as opposed to passengers – queuing at ranks.

Monitoring also took place at the ranks in Dalkeith and Bonnyrigg between December 21 and January 11. The survey revealed that at no time was there a great number of people waiting for taxis. Councillor Peter Boyes (Lab) asked if the council had received complaints from the public about there being too many taxis.

"This is like the taxi owners defending their own patch," he suggested. "Would the public want us to take 10 taxis off the road? "We have got to consider Joe Public as well as the taxi owners."

Councillor Derek Milligan (Lab) told colleagues they only had to look at the rank opposite the council headquarters to see the number of taxis sitting waiting for hire.

"We introduced an extra 10 taxis some years ago and right on the back of that came the smoking ban in pubs. "There is now a downturn in business with a lot of unemployment coming along."

A motion to keep the number of taxis at 52 was passed by eight votes to five.

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IDFIMH

So, the smoking ban caused a downturn in business?

Isn't the difference between a politician and anyone with more than one brain cell that the only one who didn't foresee this was the politician?