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Peebles man says rank not required as drivers have radios
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Author:  StuartW [ Sun Nov 24, 2019 12:19 am ]
Post subject:  Peebles man says rank not required as drivers have radios
Not much to see here until the community councillor's remark about drivers having radios.

And photo doesn't exactly clarify things either :?


Calls for taxi ranks to be scrapped

https://www.peeblesshirenews.com/news/1 ... -scrapped/

Image
Image: Peeblesshire News

TAXI ranks on a busy Peebles road are causing traffic chaos resulting in tailbacks, according to angry motorists.

The new bays on Innerleithen Road are used as an overspill for taxi drivers if the designated spaces on the High Street are full.

But the new taxi rank is thought to be in a bad location due to the parking bays on the opposite side of the road outside Osso restaurant.

Following concerns from drivers, Peebles Community Council members were asked to give their feedback to Scottish Borders Council.

A suggestion was put forward to scrap the parking bays outside the restaurant but this was not supported.

Community councillor George Ramsay said: “That’s not the answer.

"Take the taxi rank away.

"There are two bays in Eastgate Carpark and they’ve been there all the time so I don’t see why they can’t use those.

"Drivers are taking risks and it’s a potential hazard.”

But Tweeddale West Councillor Eric Small added: “It was mentioned that the new bays acted as traffic calming measure and reduced speeding vehicles.”

Chairman Les Turnbull said: “There’s no doubt a serious traffic problem there and the solution is either you move the taxi rank somewhere or you move those parking bays somewhere.

"I’m getting a feeling the consensus is to move the taxi bays.

"You are quite right, there are those taxi bays in the car park that are never used and if the issue is missing fares all of these drivers have radios.

"There is actually no parking right along that left-hand side of the road as you’re coming into the Eastgate.

"So presumably the best thing to do would be to get rid of those two taxi bays and leave that clear and the buses would have a clear run in.”

Community councillor Harry Anderson said that taxi drivers are queuing behind the new rank and blocking the entrance to the Park Hotel.

Another option put to the community council was to scrap the Innerleithen Road bays and extend the original taxi rank next to the bus station.

This would mean losing two public car parking spaces but would keep all the taxis together.

The community council is to seek the views of taxi drivers and report back to a future meeting.
Author:  StuartW [ Sun Nov 24, 2019 12:20 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Peebles man says rank not required as drivers have radio
Community council chairman wrote:
"You are quite right, there are those taxi bays in the car park that are never used and if the issue is missing fares all of these drivers have radios."


Quite apart from everything else that's wrong with that statement, maybe the reason they needed a feeder rank is that there's not so much pre-booked work to go round these days, so streets clogged up with cars?

Or maybe he's actually making a point about the lack of apps and dataheads in the Peebles trade. Or maybe he's just a bit out of touch about how cutting edge the trade is there :badgrin:

Quote:
The community council is to seek the views of taxi drivers and report back to a future meeting.

I'm sure they'll be cock-a-hoop :roll:
Author:  StuartW [ Tue Mar 23, 2021 3:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Peebles man says rank not required as drivers have radio
This article feels like it's going on longer than the rank saga - the article above is from 2019 :-o

I'm sure it makes more sense if you know the area and the local trade. But suspect it's the typical views of those who think one rank space here is the same as one rank space there. And who can't comprehend that there may just simply be gross underprovision of rank space. And who think that if they consult one person in the trade then they've consulted everyone.

So same old, same old, but makes a change to read reports on a community council's views on ranks rather than the full council. Presumably that will be next :roll:


Peebles taxi parking problems addressed by 'solution'

https://www.bordertelegraph.com/news/19 ... -solution/

THE Peebles taxi parking debate rumbled on this month, with community leaders finally reaching an agreement.

The additional rank outside the Park Hotel on Innerleithen Road has had motorists all revved up due to tailbacks.

This resulted in calls to Peebles Community Council to get it removed, and following many discussions it was agreed that the rank should be moved further along the High Street, outside the County Inn.

However, this was not received well by taxi firms who said they were not properly consulted and asked Scottish Borders Council (SBC) to re-instate the rank on Innerleithen Road.

During last Thursday’s meeting of the community council, chairman Les Turnbull said: “This has been bubbling away for over a year and I think it’s fair to say that at the beginning, there was some consultation with the taxi drivers.

"We got to a position a few weeks ago where SBC, who were working to what we asked for, removed the taxi rank outside the Park Hotel, which created a little bit of a storm with the taxi drivers who claimed that they hadn’t been consulted.

“I find that surprising because there had been some consultation.

"There’s no easy solution to any of this, because if we move some of the public parking spaces as the taxi drivers would like us to do, then that could damage some of the other businesses in the town, so, unfortunately, someone somewhere is going to be unhappy at what the community council and subsequently, Scottish Borders Council might do.”

Mr Turnbull said there had been a large number of complaints to the community council regarding the rank causing an obstruction.

The meeting heard that community councillor George Ramsay had been in discussions with roads and licensing officers at SBC to try to reach an agreement on the parking bays.

Mr Turnbull added: “I would like to try and resolve the issue as amicably as we possibly can.

"It’s been suggested that we try and achieve a compromise between the taxi drivers and other users of the parking spaces on the High Street, and that would include business users.”

He told members that the “compromise” suggested is to extend the Eastgate rank to give the taxi drivers one more bay outside the Trespass shop, and offer them two bays outside the County Inn.

“I personally think that is quite a reasonable compromise,” said Mr Turnbull. “And if we can achieve that we can then do away with those ranks outside the Park Hotel.”

Mr Ramsay said he thought that the suggestion was a good offer, but if the taxi drivers did not agree, they should utilise the two unused taxi bays in East Station car park.

Some community councillors said the suggestion to relocate the bus station on the Eastgate to East Station car park was a better long-term solution.

Graham Mackie said: “I appreciate that it’s drastic and we’ve had objections to that in the past, but I still think it would be a better solution."

Mr Turnbull replied: “I don’t disagree with what you’re saying, but I take the view as you’ve just mentioned, that it’s a long-term solution rather than an immediate solution to address the immediate problem.

"I think we should probably investigate that in the fullness of time.”

The community council were almost in unanimous agreement to the short-term solution apart from one member, who said she was “not desperately happy” about it.

Julie Shearer said: “You want the town shops to get as much footfall as they can, and all these taxis are sitting waiting doing absolutely nothing and taking up the spaces.

"People needing to pop into the chemist for five minutes to pick up a prescription, or the bank, where are they going to park, all of us that need to do quick errands?”

Mr Turnbull added: “You make a good point and it’s not one that’s lost on me, but we’re trying to reach a compromise that suits most people.”
Author:  edders23 [ Tue Mar 23, 2021 7:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Peebles man says rank not required as drivers have radio
both high street and innerleithen road appear to be different names for the A72

But it looks as though there is room and I would not be at all surprised if the rank is not replaced with parking bays for the hotel users instead
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