WORKINGTON cab drivers are furious that they can’t pick up elderly and disabled passengers during the day from the new footbridge that links the town.
Taxis are banned from driving down to Barker’s Crossing footbridge between 7am and 7pm.
But cabbies say that a lot of their customers rely on them during these hours as they are unable to catch a bus or walk into town.
Stephen and Sheena Robinson, of S&S Taxis, said that a lot of their customers are elderly and disabled and need them to pick them up at the footbridge, after they have walked across it.
Mrs Robinson said: “We have a lot of elderly customers who rely on us to pick them up once they have struggled across the bridge. They don’t want us to be there at 7pm when the shops are closed – they need us during shopping hours.
“What the authorities don’t seem to understand is that a lot the elderly cannot board buses or trains and find it impossible to walk up into town, and rely on us heavily to get them from A to B.”
She said that trade had already been hit by the collapse of Northside bridge and the closure of Calva bridge during the floods and that this had just made things worse.
“It seems the elderly have been forgotten but yet we are able to usher the drinkers to and from all evening,” she added.
Her husband Stephen, former chairman of Workington Taxi Association said that taxi drivers in the town are angry because they can’t get down to the bridge during daylight hours.
He added that elderly and disabled people are being discriminated against.
“It is disgraceful. A lot of people can’t get on buses. They’re (Cumbria County Council) saying they have to stay at home until after 7pm – it is ludicrous,” said Mr Robinson.
A county council spokesman said that taxis are allowed to pick and drop people off either side of the bridge only between 7pm and 7am as there are not as many buses running and there are fewer pedestrians, thus not posing the same potential safety concerns.
If any taxi driver flouts the law and drives to the bridge to pick up a passenger during the day, they face being handed a £30 on-the-spot-fine.
Since the middle of December, 50 motorists have been fined for driving along the no-access roads to drop off and pick people up at the bridge.
Inspector Mark Wear said that residents told police they were concerned with driver and pedestrian safety at the bridge, resulting in regular police patrols in the area to enforce the law and reassure people that the area is safe.
He added that drivers who continue to ignore the laws are putting themselves and others in danger by entering the area illegally.
Police are now looking to start removing vehicles parked illegally there.
source:
http://www.timesandstar.co.uk/cabbies_a ... rPath=home
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