Taxi Driver Online

Neighbours bid to stop second taxi base plan

CONTROVERSIAL plans for a town centre taxi base have sparked objections from residents.

The proposal to adapt City Car Wash, in London Road, Stoke, to include a taxi base and an 11-metre (36ft) high communications aerial has been submitted to Stoke-on-Trent City Council.

The car wash currently operates from 8am to 6pm, but, if approved, the taxi base and rank would be a 24-hour operation.

Applicant Parvez Khan, from Lightwood, wants to move Fenton-based City Cabs to the former petrol station site which he owns in Stoke.

It is the second time he has filed the plans. They were first submitted in September but withdrawn following more than a dozen complaints from residents.

This time the application has attracted more objections, including a petition with 37 signatures.

Neighbours are concerned the business would exacerbate existing parking problems in nearby Sturgess Street and have raised fears about noise nuisance.

Leslie Powell, aged 49, from Sturgess Street said: "We have enough noise and nuisance in the area already without a taxi rank.

"There are a lot of pubs in Stoke and people hang around in the early hours of the morning as it is, adding taxis to the mix is just going to make things worse.

"I have no problems with the car wash as it is, I don't see why it should change."

The car wash currently employs four full-time and two part-time workers. If the taxi rank plan is approved, a further two full-time jobs will be created at the site.

The original application was recommended for refusal on highway safety grounds, with the council asking for more information from the applicant about vehicle numbers and parking.

Thadious Chigodo, of Bath Street, said: "This is the second time this application has come. When it was first listed it was as a taxi rank and now they are using it to include a taxi base.

"My objection is that the taxis will take our parking lots and space for visitors, causing congestion in the area.

"Bath Street is already relatively busy and with this taxi rank it will become worse, I strongly object to this application."

http://www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk/Ne ... story.html

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"There are a lot of pubs in Stoke and people hang around in the early hours of the morning as it is, adding taxis to the mix is just going to make things worse.

surely the proximity of taxis will reduce the amount of hanging around ?

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector