Wisbech Taxi Drivers Set To Launch To Campaign To Halt Proposed Move From Horsefair
07 October 2009
Taxi drivers in Wisbech are launching a campaign to halt the proposed move away from the Horsefair centre.
Fenland District Council says the rank should be moved away from the bus station because of safety problems.
However taxi drivers are now expected to get passengers to sign a petition calling for the rank to remain in its present location, rather than move to a car park alongside the Case pub.
Over the weekend a car parked there was badly vandalised - helping to convince members of the Wisbech and District Hackney Carriage Drivers Association that the area is not a safe location.
"It is a recognised crime area, it is not a suitable place for a taxi rank," said association chairman Dave Patrick.
At a licensing committee meeting last week, councillors said they were consulting taxi drivers about moving the rank, because of new EU legislation.
Members were told that an EU statutory group had raised fears of buses being unable to safely reverse in areas with limited space. As a result, the council has been forced to find alternative spaces for taxi ranks.
Kim Winterton, the council's licensing regulatory officer, said the proposed site was the "last piece of land we own close to the bus station".
Councillor Carol Cox said: "We are between a rock and a hard place." She believed the current location was "convenient and helpful.
"You can come out of the supermarket, or you can jump off a bus from an outlying town, straight into a taxi. It is the most sensible place for them to be and taxis would be lost completely near The Case.
Click on the Source link below for photo of vandalised car.
Source; Wisbech-Standard.co.uk
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