Taxi Driver Online

THE row between taxi king Mohammed Bashir and Middlesbrough Mayor Ray Mallon erupted at a council meeting, as dozens of cabbies blasted their car horns outside.

Drivers from Boro Taxis, the town’s biggest operator, queued up on the streets outside the town hall in protest as officials held a hearing to discuss plans for new taxi wardens.

Middlesbrough Council is to employ staff at Wilson Street in the town centre to regulate the flow of hackney carriages and private hire taxis late on Friday and Saturday nights outside local takeaways.

Boro Taxis recently lost a bitter court battle against the council over the prosecution of one of its drivers for parking in a space reserved for hackney carriages. The judge ruled that the council had been “fair” and “tolerant” with the company, and was acting “on behalf of the public interest at large”.

At the Middlesbrough Council executive meeting, Boro Taxis owner Mr Bashir was joined in the public gallery by around 40 of his drivers carrying banners attacking Mr Mallon. When the mayor arrived he was greeted with chants of “Ray Mallon out”.

Mr Mallon refused to proceed until the placards, which carried messages including “rogue council”, “fake documents” and “empire of evil” were taken out of the room.

He then warned the crowd: “I am not going to put up with any slaver from any of you, full stop.

“You can’t hijack this meeting because I am not going to let you.”

Mr Bashir responded: “Do you know what? You are nothing but a bully.

“It’s ‘my way or the highway’ - that’s why we’re sick of you. You are the cause of all these problems.”

In papers prepared for the meeting, officers recommended introducing wardens to patrol the area, as it was the only option for Wilson Street that had widespread approval of the interested parties.

BDISut Boro Taxis, also known as Boro Cars, called for new pick-up zones to be introduced for its cars and other private hire vehicles.

Currently, the street has pick-up zones which are reserved for hackney carriages only.

The company’s secretary and director Christine Bell told the meeting: “There are two ‘Cs’ missing from all of this - compromise and consultation.”


She said there was a “clear bias toward the hackney carriage trade”, and said the decision was “certainly not in the public interest”.

Mr Bashir added that removing the ranks would mean both private cabs and hackney carriages would have room to pick up on the street.

Joe Durkin, chairman of the Hackney Carriage Association, said hackney carriage drivers got on well with private hire cabbies, but added: “There is tension between the hackney carriage trade and Boro Cars.”

The plan for new wardens was approved. Mr Mallon said: “In my opinion it is in the public interest but it has provoked a significant reaction from Boro Cars.

“Our focus must always be on the safety of the travelling public and not the narrow business interests of one taxi business or another.

“It is clear to me that any reasonable person would agree that now is the time to draw a line under the past and move on. I see no evidence of either reasonableness or good grace from Boro Cars.”

Not a lot of love being felt around there.

Methinks it will all end in tears.

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IDFIMH

I'm not entirely sure why there is a need for ph to have a pick up zone. Ph only pick up when the customer books the fare so surely the driver goes to where the customer is

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

That is part of the problem I think. The customer is at the taxi rank. Now it may be that over the years that the company has asked it's customers to wait at the rank for the pick up and they don't want to change.
Some councils do have private hire pick up zones, such as Leicester. The police and licensing shut down the area where the clubs are and taxis rank in one place and Private Hire wait in another.

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Grandad,