Taxi Driver Online

‘Why pick on us?’ demands cabbie

A CABBIE who was taken to court for using an unofficial taxi rank says his prosecution was a waste of time and money. Carl King was found guilty of parking in a dangerous position after stopping in John Street near the junction with Fleet Street.

King, of Coronation Road, Wroughton, was fined £100 and ordered to pay costs of £154 at Swindon Magistrates' Court. The 28-year-old black cab driver was given three penalty points on his licence and fined a further £200 for not producing his driving documents.
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Town centre beat officer PC Andy Alexander said it was important to get the message across that taxis should not take fares from the area at the bottom of town. Police argue that John Street is too small to cope with the traffic and they say attracting crowds of revellers to the same spot after a night out fuels drunken violence.

But the representative of hackney carriage drivers in Swindon believes they are being picked on for doing their job. PC Alexander, said: "The reasons are simple. This small cul-de-sac was not designed to cope with this level of traffic. "The congestion caused here also means that pedestrians thread themselves through the slow moving traffic often unseen by the drivers."

Police saw a 50 per cent rise in public order offences between January and April this year, compared to the same period in 2005, and they are determined to reduce the number of fights in town. "This is a confined area and attracting large numbers into it can only be a recipe for disaster," PC Alexander said. "The John Street area is one of the areas where we experience drunken violence. "I have had cause to deal with people who have come from all over the town to get a taxi from the John Street taxi rank'."

Police are planning to open an official taxi rank in Fleming Way, which they say will be much safer.

Mr King, who left court to find his taxi had been given a parking ticket, said: "I was just sitting there waiting for a fare. "All we are doing is our jobs and we're getting drunk people off the streets. The police expect women to walk to the train station to get a taxi when it's much safer to come out of the pub and get straight in a cab. "It was a bit of a waste of time taking me to court, they must have better things to do. I don't know if they were trying to make an example of me but it's a waste of money."

Tony Johnson, who represents hackney carriage drivers in Swindon, said: "We are not causing an obstruction, we are relieving the obstruction. "All we are doing is trying to do a day's work. They are just picking on the people that are doing a normal trade."

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IDFIMH

I take it he has had better days.

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IDFIMH

Let's face it, some drivers just please themselves, then cry foul when brought to book.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

I tend to take issue with that statement



£454 seems a bit of a result to me

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