Taxi Driver Online

Abingdon taxi ranks moved, causing confusion


TAXI drivers in Abingdon claim a rank move by the county council has caused chaos.

Cabbies say their six-car rank in East St Helens Street disappeared overnight earlier this month and the two replacement ranks are still not properly signposted.

Oxfordshire County Council created the new three-car ranks in Broad Street and The Square from laybys after consultation on the plans last year. There will also be a new rank in Queen Street.

But Stuart Thomas, of AC Taxis, said trade had been affected as customers are left struggle to find the new pick-up spots.

He said: “The last two or three weeks have been pretty awful.

“There is no signage at all, which the council is legally obliged to do. It has been handled badly, to be honest.”

He also said a 90-year-old woman had been reduced to tears as she could not find a taxi.

Mr Thomas said motorists were now parking on the old East St Helen Street rank as there were no road markings. He said: “It is the best parking in the town and they haven’t repainted it. It is a free-for-all.”

Mike Moon, chairman of Vale Disability Access, said the move had confused people.

He said: “There was no warning and no direction.

“People are scurrying around town trying to find out where the taxi ranks are.”

Robert Draper, head of licensing at Vale of White Horse District Council, said the work was done by the county council.

He also said temporary signs had now been put up to direct people to the new ranks.

He said: “We weren’t notified that this work was going to be undertaken on November 6.

“The first we knew about it was when the taxi drivers rang up saying where has our rank gone?”

In June last year 70 drivers and more than 150 customers signed a petition against the plans to move the rank.

And in April the district council raised the fee for cab licences from £235 to £259. Three years ago it was £78.

Jason Atherton, of Abingdon-based Auto Taxis, said the rank row was just another problem for taxi drivers.

He said: “There aren’t spaces for the number of taxis licensed in Abingdon. We can’t do our job and we can’t earn our living.”

County council spokesman Owen Morton said: Although taxi firms had been aware for a number of years that the changes would be taking place we accept that we should have worked more closely with the district council to enable them to further notify taxis when the ranks were moved three weeks ago, and we are sorry for this.

source: http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/

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