Taxi Driver Online

Taxi drivers' protest set to bring Bristol city centre to a standstill

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bris ... ng-5250379

The drivers have three grievances


Image: Bristol Live

Bristol's taxi drivers are planning to gridlock the city centre with a slow-moving blockade protest next week.

Bristol Live understands the Bristol Blue hackney carriage taxi drivers will be leading the blockade, and are welcoming private hire drivers to join them too.

Hundreds of drivers could join the protest, which looks set to bring the city centre to a standstill if it goes ahead.

The taxi drivers say they have a list of three grievances with Bristol City Council, and will stop picking up fares and instead parade around the city centre in a slow-moving convoy to air their grievances and bring the city to a standstill.

The first issue is with the way the council handled payments of the ARG - the Additional Restrictions Grant. This is money given by the Government to self-employed people whose incomes have been badly affected by coronavirus lockdown.

The money has gone to Bristol City Council to distribute, but taxi drivers say there have been issues with how easy it is to claim this money, the short notice of deadlines given to submit claims for it.

Many taxi drivers said they hadn't been able to make the first claim, missed the deadlines and have been left on the breadline as custom is still hugely down in the city centre. Many taxi drivers said they have claims to recoup the first grant they weren't able to claim outstanding with the council.

The second issue is about the ongoing controversy regarding a taxi rank outside the Bristol Hippodrome on St Augustine's Parade in The Centre. Last year, Bristol City Council closed the rank down, saying it was unsafe. In late October last year, taxi drivers held a convoy protest about the rank, after a number of drivers were fined for stopping there and picking up fares.

At the time in October, the chairman of the Bristol Blue Licensing Taxi Association, Saif Hussain, wrote a letter to the city council calling on them to reinstate the rank.

He said being unable to use that rank was a 'disaster' for drivers' livelihoods.

Bristol City Council at the time pointed out that cars parked at that point of the road from College Green into the city centre was unsafe for pedestrians, cyclists and other motorists, and a new taxi rank had been created just 30m further up the road.

In the letter last year, Mr Hussain said the council had created a 'hostile environment' around the Hippodrome by putting traffic wardens there to enforce the stopping up of that rank.

When, last October the protest was only about the Hippodrome taxi rank, Bristol City Council said: "We have had long running conversations with different representatives of the hackney trade about the severe public safety issues outside the Hippodrome caused to the public and why this makes it an unsafe location for taxis.

"To support the taxi trade, we have invested in alternative space 30-40 yards further up the road outside Boots including a customer shelter and signs showing its location, as well as another larger rank opposite and across on Colston St.

"During the pandemic, we have also supported the trade with a free plate for six months passing on the MOT derogation, and have supplied in excess of 10,000 face coverings to keep both drivers and passengers safe.

"Vehicles parked illegally at both the bus stop outside the Hippodrome and the taxi rank further up the road will be enforced using penalty charge notices (PCN). Further taxi ranks have been developed outside the BRI, and we will keep under review other spaces that can be used safely by the trade," the statement added.

The third issue the taxi drivers have is surrounding the longer-term plans by the council to bring in a Clean Air Zone, which will mean the owners of all diesel vehicles and some older petrol vehicles will have to pay a charge for driving in or near the city centre - and taxi drivers want exemptions from this.

The taxi drivers' protest is being called for next Wednesday, April 7, and begins at 7.30am.

The drivers, who could well be bolstered in number by private hire vehicle drivers, who are also affected by the Additional Relief Grant, are to gather in Brunswick Square.

Bristol Live understands the planned route will go from the Bearpit, down to The Centre, up Park Street and around Clifton Triangle before returning to the BearPit, and looping back round again.

It is not known how many taxi drivers will take part, but in October even a 50 vehicles moving slowly around the Bearpit roundabout was enough to bring the city centre to a standstill.

Bristol Live has asked Bristol City Council for a response to the news of the demonstration.


Image: rmlordy/Twitter

The protest over the rank about six months ago was in this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=36276&p=404406

there's something about Bristol and protests they seem to go together

Can't have a year go by without Bristol cabbies gridlocking the roads they get on as well with the council there as Trotsky did with Maggie Thatcher

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

I wish them well.

But I'm not sure the council give a monkeys.

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IDFIMH

well Brizl seems to get more protests than the rest of the UK put together so I doubt they notice,

Their council meetings must start with the words "so who's protesting today"

" Star wars fans about the lack of star wars films in the TV schedules this Easter"

" Oh well makes a change from the anti slavery ,civil liberties and the cabbies"

"they are scheduled for 12th to 30th April on consecutive days"

" wouldn't be Brizle if someone wasn't protesting right first order of business lets dish out the brown envelopes from the planning commitee"

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

Bristol is chock a block full of the same lefties that we have in B&H.

Most never done a days work in their tree hugging lives, but when they do actually get a proper job they change their tune when it comes down to income tax and general taxation.

Then they stop wanting to save the world.

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IDFIMH

Well the protest has gone ahead, and there's at least five different pieces on the Bristol Live site today alone.

And there's videos, photos, live updates, and all the usual stuff on these 'Live' websites, so my laptop is having a nervous breakdown just loading the pages, never mind doing much with them on here.

But below is a link to the main page if anyone's interested, plus another couple of pieces about disputes with members of the public which seem to be getting a lot of reads. Of course, they're NHS-related, as can be seen from the headlines, so that's always guaranteed to tug the heartstrings and get people reading.

A few photos below as well. But, er, I don't think anything's actually been achieved regarding the issues that the protest is about, which is why probably not much point posting much on here


Taxi drivers' protest brings Bristol city centre to a standstill today - updates

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bris ... ve-5269188

The protest is set to take place this morning


NHS driver vents frustration at taxi driver after missing bus home after 13 hour shift

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bris ... xi-5270637

His bus home was held up as a result of this morning's protest


'Some of us have hospital appointments' - driver's anger at Bristol taxi driver protests

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bris ... er-5270587

She says they need 'sacking' but taxi drivers have real grievances



Image: Bristol Post


Image: Bristol Post


Image: Bristol Post


Image: Bristol Post

I've never been a fan of these kind of demonstrations.

Not having a pop at those involved, as I wished them well, but have they ever succeeded?

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IDFIMH

Yet another protest about the Hippodrome rank removal. But no mention of the other stuff in this report, and nothing new otherwise


Bristol taxi protest causes city centre disruption

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-58408940

This is a bit more interesting than yesterday's article


Mayor urges Bristol taxi drivers to work with him constructively, after protest causes gridlock

https://planetradio.co.uk/greatest-hits ... -gridlock/


Image: James Diamond/Planet Radio

Bristol's blue taxis want an old rank outside the Hippodrome reopened, but the council insists it would not be safe

Bristol's mayor has urged the city's taxi drivers to work with him constructively, after a protest yesterday (01/09) left the centre completely gridlocked.

Bristol's blue taxis are angry that a rank directly outside the Hippodrome no longer exists; they say it used to be their most profitable spot.

It was originally removed back in 2015 when the metrobus was established although taxis have still been allowed to stop there unofficially since.

Yesterday's protest was sparked, we're told, because dozens of drivers have started receiving fines from the council for continuing to stop there.

Saif Hussain is the chair of the Bristol Blue Licenced Taxi Association (BBLTA).

"They (the fines) are coming through the post two, three at a time for each driver," he told us.

""I've had one myself.

"Come last week, they (the council) just started fining us, many, many fines and that's what's triggered this protest."

The city's blue taxi drivers fear they are being shut out of the market because they are no longer allowed to sit and wait for customers outside the theatre, but, they claim, private hire vehicles are allowed to stop there briefly to pick up or drop off pre booked rides.

Saif says the BBLTA have held talks with Bristol City Council which also involved other interested parties including the bus company and police, but to no avail.

"We didn't get what we wanted from that meeting and basically that was it," he said.

"The rank has been there since the 1980s and taxis have always used that rank.

"When the centre was remodelled in 2015 for the metrobus the signboard was removed...

"Despite that we worked there up till now, that's six years we worked there without a signboard, and in those six years we've been saying there needs to be a rank here.

"Slowly, the council have said no, you can't have a rank there, you have to use further ranks which are 200 metres away."

There is also a new rank roughly 50m from the theatre, but Saif says in both instances they are too far away from the prime spot considering pre booked taxis are still allowed to pick up and drop people off directly outside the theatre.

"Those ranks are too far because if tourists come to Bristol, they'll never find that rank because it's all the way down by the Cenotaph...it's not a place you find people go, it's like a ghost town there.

"The main attraction is the Hippodrome."

We spoke to Mayor Marvin Rees to get his reaction.

"The point is, it's been made clear to us that having a rank outside the Hippodrome is actually dangerous because the rank ends up backing up around the corner (up Park Street)," he said.

"That's been made clear to us as an authority. The police have made that point too as well as a number of other organisations.

"We've been through that discussion a number of times, we simply cannot put a rank in place that with the new road configuration brings risk like that."

Yesterday's protest caused severe traffic jams around the city centre with an ambulance caught on camera trapped amongst it.

Saif and the BBLTA have apologised for the disruption, with Mayor Rees urging them to work together to find a realistic solution.

"We've said, 'alright, we can't give you the perfect solution that you would wish for because of the situation that we're in, but this is what we can do to support the trade'," Marvin said.

"We can't get the best as you see it, so lets all work out what we can actually do, to do our best.

"If it's just simply about more signage or talking to the Hippodrome, putting it on their tickets to say, when you leave turn left it's just 50m if that, then we can do that, but lets focus on the solutions that are actually available to us rather than asking for something that's not available to us."

Maybe he's missing the point here if he thinks putting directions to the new rank on the Hippodrome's tickets will sort things.

But it's a familiar tale - HCs obviously causing a bit of a problem at the old location with overranking etc. Council relocates it, but just don't get that a simple relocation won't replicate the old rank scenario, even if the distance involved isn't far, and particularly if the HCs consider that it disadvantages them to the benefit of the PH trade. Then cars continue to use the old rank, and council eventually starts ticketing...

What is so unconstructive in wanting a rank where there has always been one?

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IDFIMH