Cab drivers fear this Hull taxi rank is the most 'dangerous' in the city
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It has been moved as part of the City of Culture regeneration works
Cab drivers in Hull are calling on the council to change what they say is a "dangerous" city centre taxi rank.
Concerns have been raised after the taxi rank, which used to be outside the Empress pub in Alfred Gelder Street, was re-designed to be situated next to Queen's Gardens as part of public realm works in 2016.
CLEAR WARNING: Peter Nilsson, chairman of Hull Hackney Carriage Association, says he would support sanctions against drivers found to be discriminating (Image: Hull Daily Mail)
Peter Nilsson, chairman of the Hull Hackney Carriage Association, has spoken out about the negative impact the new rank is having on both trade and public safety.
He said: "They have put the cars down a side street facing the wrong way, so when people are looking for taxis all they can see is the back of vans, they don't realise they are taxis.
"Then you've got the problem that it's a lot further to walk, they're having to cross the road which is the main thoroughfare for the buses in the city.
"That's happening on a night as well with drunk people falling all over the road, it's a potential disaster."
The new rank at Queens Gardens (Image: Hull Daily Mail)
The old rank in Alfred Gelder Street has since been pedestrianised, with a bus stop now in operation on part of the former site.
Mr Nilsson's comments follow the publication of a report by Licensed Vehicle Surveys & Assessment (LVSA), which discovered that weekly passenger numbers for the rank fell by 30 per cent compared to 2015.
As part of the report, an LVSA survey found passenger numbers decreased slightly from the 2015 survey estimates, with 9,694 people using Hackney carriages on a typical week in 2018, compared to 10,090 three years ago.
It also reveals Queen's Gardens to be the third most-used rank in Hull, behind the zones outside Paragon Station and Lowgate, having been the second most popular rank before it was re-designed.
Mr Nilsson says the change in location has led to a fall in demand for what is a key port of call for customers returning to east Hull from the city centre.
He added: "It's had a drastic effect, the footfall for this rank has dropped dramatically and that is having an effect on the taxi drivers, it's making work a lot harder.
"The elderly are struggling, disabled people are struggling, it's a lot further for them to go, we were adjacent to the Marks and Spencer's [and] people that were not firm on their feet could just walk out and get taxis but they're really struggling to do that now.
"By forcing people to walk further to a taxi rank when they don't know where the ranks are, the council's design of this is wrong and it's about time they made it right for everybody.
"In other cities, taxi ranks are adjacent to shops, they're not down side streets out of the way."
The matter was raised by Mr Nilsson at a meeting of the Hull City Council licensing committee last week, where councillors agreed with recommendations that the number of hackney carriages in the city should remain at 170.
The rank used to be by the Empress pub (Image: Hull Daily Mail)
Licensing manager for the council, Keith Fenner, addressed the issue in the committee meeting.
He said: "It was always going to be suck it and see because the former councillor for economic regeneration was determined to make sure there was a taxi rank in close proximity to the Empress, because of the changes that had to be taken.
"I would recommend that the issue of the ranks in the city centre be referred to infrastructure and energy overview and scrutiny commission for an urgent matter, so that that can be picked up with the highways officers present."
Mr Fenner added that the matter will be treated as a priority and is set to be discussed by the relevant ward councillors and council officers before the end of the year.
