Taxi Driver Online

Peterborough drivers’ safety concerns remain

A MEETING between Peterborough private hire firms and local police has failed to quell concerns about the safety of city drivers.

Leading members of the Peterborough Private Hire Drivers’ Association met yesterday with Peterborough city centre Inspector Dominic Glazebrook in response to anger about how police handled the latest assault against a cabbie in the city.

Father-of-two Gholam Hussein, from Millfield, was left fearing for his life after being attacked while at work in East Station Road just after midnight on February 1.

It attracted criticism from the association after no arrest was made.

Yesterday’s meeting was the second between the association and the police since the attack.

Secretary Mohammed Zahoor said the association was disappointed a more senior member of the force did not join Insp Glazebrook to allay their concerns about police’s response to such issues.

He said: “We think that quite obviously reflects the poor relationship that is now happening between the police and us.”

He added: “There’s a lot of mistrust and lack of confidence in how police actually investigate these incidents.”

Mr Zahoor said they need to be reassured police were making changes over how it responds to attacks against drivers after the force publicly apologised over how its officers handled an assault against private hire driver Mohammed Farooq last year, for which two people were recently convicted.

He said: “The police should treat them as priority calls, because they are alone and at risk of being seriously attacked.”

Mr Zahoor said the association still had not ruled out contacting the Independent Police Complaints Commission regarding Mr Hussein and it lacks confidence an arrest would now be made.

However, Insp Glazebrook said that his officers were taken the assault extremely seriously.

He said: “I met with community representatives regarding concerns for private hire drivers in the city. We discussed the investigation into the assault in East Station Road and ways forward to ensure co-operation between police and drivers.

“We take all reports of violence very seriously and investigate each case thoroughly - as demonstrated by the recent conviction of two people who assaulted a driver.”

http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news ... _1_3530880

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

this does go two ways though yes there should be a better response from police BUT the drivers need to learn how to handle drunks I've heard a lot of reports lately not just in peterborough but here in Stamford of drivers getting into quite a strop with customers because of non pc language agression breeds agression

That said one of my drivers had a problem with a fare back to Peterborough last weekend and the response from the police was very good by all accounts

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