I know I always suggest that councils are best placed to decide, and when it comes to forming policies and general issues I stand by that, however certain specific issues leave me gobsmacked.
Some time ago a driver was out at work in a suburb of Gateshead where we have a rank for 2 cars. There are 8 pubs in this area and we have consistently been asking for more spaces as more than 20 taxis work that rank at weekend nights. We'll call this driver A.
It was on one of these nights when driver A had pulled onto a disabled bay, as the rank was full, noticing that 3 cars were on the opposite side of the road in a loading bay waiting to enter the rank when a place became available.
The driver noticed a car stopped on the road adjacant to his with the passenger and driver glaring at him, he was just about to pull his window down and ask if he could be of assistance when the car sped forward and parked in a space left on the taxi rank, we'll call this driver B. One of the cars that was waiting at the loading bay opposite had started turning, driver 1, across the road to fill the space and was blocking both sides of the carriageway, so he sounded his horn which caused the others to sound theirs, drivers 2,3,4 and 5.
Driver B got out of his car and began arguing with driver 1 which incited drivers 2,3 and 4 who got out of their vehicles and joined in the argument. Driver B was irate and claimed that he was disabled and was unable to get into a disabled bay because there was a taxi in it. He was shouting that all taxi drivers were a bunch of greedy barstewards and those involved here were all counts (can't put the real words he said but you get my gist).
It was at this point that driver A pulled up and asked driver B what the problem was ................. "Its fooking you winkers thinking you can fooking park wherever the fook you want, stopping decent people from fooking parking where they need to" (or similar) driver B shouted as he walked directly towards driver A. Not wanting to show that he was intimidated by driver B's aggression driver A said "Fook of man you fooking a-hole".
At this point because the road was blocked a panda car, with blue lights flashing, came on the scene and driver A approached the officer pointing out that the driver of the car causing the disturbance was driver B and he suggested that Driver B, because of his general attitude, could have been drinking, at this point driver B was entering the takeaway.
Driver A told one of the officers that he had called driver B a fooking a-hole because of the way he had conducted himself, the officer told driver A to go back to work and they would sort it out.
About 5 days later driver A got a call from Gatesheads LO asking him to attend his office as an allegation had been made against him, as driver A was on his way to his school run he said it would have to wait and enquired as to what allegations had been made. When the LO mentioned this incident driver A stated the situation as I have described it here.
A meeting was held between driver A and the council and the LO decided that the case would need to be heard before the Regulatory Committee.
On the date of the committee hearing driver A was there with his solicitor but there was no sign of driver B who's written statement was read out in his absence. During the questioning of driver A regarding his statement a councillor asked "why on earth did you suggest to the Police Officer that driver B had been drinking, what has that got to do with you, you have no right to make such a suggestion".
Driver B obviously could not be questioned regarding his statement as he wasn't there, even though there was questions arising from his statement.
The decision this kangaroo court made was to suspend driver A for a period of 7 days, driver A immediately stated he intended to appeal against this decision.
Just so that you know, driver A has held various licenses with our council for 23 years and has an unblemished record, he is an approved contractor with the council and is approved to conduct sensitive contracts. He seeks work for his WAV and has built up a decent customer base of disabled users who he takes great pride in servicing.
I think that driver B has some kind of influence over a councilor or is being influenced by someone else to see this complaint through to the conclusion where driver A loses his licence.
I think that the "punishment" is unfair and an appeal before the magistrates may be beyond his reach financially.
The Police also received a complaint and driver A has been issued with a fixed penalty notice for an offence under section 5 public order, which he will appeal against as it will not have a financial impact if it gets through the CPS to court ............... indications are that it may not get that far.
The purpose of me posting this is to warn drivers that honesty is not always the best policy and it is with much regret that I have informed our members that they should initially deny all knowledge of any allegations made against them, at least until they have full knowledge of such allegations.
B. Lucky
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