Plea to stop taxis blocking Hereford city centre street
Taxis can often be seen queueing up in Hereford’s St Owen Street during the evening. One taxi boss wants the practice stopped
THE chairman of a Hereford taxi firm wants the police to do more to stop cab drivers blocking up one city centre street.
Queues of taxis can often be seen late at night on St Owen Street between the busy Barrels pub and the popular Jalsagor restaurant.
John Jones, from High Town Taxis, says the drivers form their own unofficial taxi rank which is both illegal and unfair on cabbies who are losing out on trade as a consequence.
Illegal ranking, where taxi drivers wait on double yellow lines for customers, is a traffic as well as a criminal offence, Mr Jones said.
He added: “The police are aware of the problem and yet nothing is done about it.
“How can they let this happen?
“It’s honest, law-abiding cabbies who lose out because of this.
“We’re left with the choice of either breaking the law or losing trade.
“It’s a criminal offence and it’s just not acceptable that it’s being allowed to happen.”
The problems have been particularly bad outside The Barrels pub.
Taxis have been seen blocking the road and forcing traffic to go around the queues.
Mr Jones, who is also chairman of the Herefordshire Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Association, added: “We’re losing out on trade because instead of getting called out, customers go in one of these taxis which are illegally waiting.
“There’s also a safety concern, with passengers having to walk out into the middle of the road to get in the cab.”
Richard Gallagher, from Herefordshire Council, said there have been problems in the area before but it is not practical to introduce taxi ranks at that specific site.
He added: “We are aware of the problems and will take action if we see illegal ranking.
“There’s a three point penalty but if we see taxis prolifically doing this the ultimate sanction is that we can take their licence away.
“We would urge taxi drivers to use the car park at the back of The Barrels pub.”
West Mercia Police had not responded to questions from the Hereford Times at the time of going to press yesterday afternoon.
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