Taxi Driver Online

Another one


Chesterfield council to investigate claims about misuse of late-night town centre taxi rank

https://www.derbyshiretimes.co.uk/news/ ... nk-3450672

Council chiefs are investigating claims that club and bar staff are parking on a busy late-night Chesterfield town centre taxi rank.

One Chesterfield taxi driver, who regularly picks up fares at the rank on Stephenson Place, said it was a serious issue which was causing traffic and safety concerns.

He said staff from nearby licensed venues were regularly parking their vehicles on the rank, which is in operation from 11pm-5am, and ‘knew exactly what they were doing’.

A spokesperson for Chesterfield Borough Council said the authority had been made aware and would ask for ‘additional night patrols’ if the problem persisted.

The taxi driver, who asked not to be named, said: “The council has been investigating it for months and it has been a problem for months.

"They don’t seem to want to do anything about it.

"It is a rank which goes live from 11pm and regularly the first two places are taken by staff from nearby venues. They know what they are doing.

"It is causing traffic and safety issues because we have to pull in and pick up passengers at an angle and they have to open doors wider.”

The taxi driver said Stephenson Place had become the busiest night-time rank in recent months as more people visit late bars instead of nightclubs.

"The trade has moved slightly across town lately and different ranks have come into play,” he added.

A spokesperson for Chesterfield Borough Council said: “We have received a report about private vehicles parking in the taxi rank on Stephenson Place, we have asked for some more detailed information about this issue.

"If the vehicles belong to individuals from local licensed venues, we will raise this with the management of those venues and ask them to park elsewhere.

"If the problem persists we will request additional night patrols from Derbyshire County Council’s civil enforcement officers.”

The taxi driver said he believed there was ‘no appetite’ to push through changes that would be short-term because of changes taking place in the town centre.

“I really can't think of another town or city that would give up one of their main taxi ranks to pub and club staff,” he added.

Who'd have thought that?





Maybe if they paid more attention to the actual issues rather than this sort of PR from their 'comms' department then the issue might have been avoided in the first place.


Not having a go a the driver, but think he's a bit naive here.

Think I've mentioned this one before but when I started in Dundee in the 1990s there was a queue of maybe 20 taxis snaking round from where the two biggest clubs were located. The council came along and painted four rank spaces bang in front of the clubs. As well as being totally inadequate for the number of taxis, guess who actually used the spaces for parking while the clubs were open?

As I recall it the council also painted a couple of rank spaces about 100 yards away, which were totally useless to anyone, and were just totally ignored, because absolutely no one wanted to park or rank in that particular spot.

In fact the four rank spaces would have been where the photographer was standing for these two photos published in the press recently.

So it should be obvious that it was maybe just as well that club staff used the rank spaces for parking rather than the taxis queuing for punters, and that the front of the queueing taxis was located at a slightly safer position a short distance away.

And if the taxis had queued here then it's not the best location as regards exiting the area, although I'm assuming the taxis were intended to queue in the conventional direction rather than against the traffic. Although because taxis never actually parked on the rank I'm not sure what direction they were meant to be facing. I suspect the council didn't know either

This below is the whole thing from a slightly different angle, and this is Streetview from 2008. The rank spaces were on the left, where they eventually painted the double yellow lines visible in the image.

The enclosure to the left was where 203020 Private Hire used as a rank for a spell, which caused a lot of controversy, but I think the council eventually closed it down, because although it was private land, the PHVs were easily visible, and any member of the public could just wander in, and it was thus a busy PHV 'rank' when the clubs chucked out.

Meanwhile, the HC queue started from behind where the StreetView is taken from, and snaked all the way round behind the two buildings until visible on the main road just beyond the minibus

Of course, it's all a very different scene at night, and indeed the two buildings centre-photo and the enclosure are now gone, and there's a fancy hotel there now

Clubs are still there, though, so I hope they've got good soundproofing. And good security

https://www.google.com/maps/@56.4604903 ... 312!8i6656

Call them in for a late-night license review.

That will do the trick.

_________________
IDFIMH

Just ask the police to ticket any vehicles parked on the rank.

Seriously? If so, policing on Tyneside must be very different to policing elsewhere


Suspect this from April is the only time in the last few years that police in Fife have ticketed a vehicle on the rank:

Rosyth taxi rank: Dunfermline taxi driver appears in court over incident

https://www.dunfermlinepress.com/news/1 ... -incident/

A DUNFERMLINE cabbie has appeared in court for a careless driving offence committed at a taxi rank.

Dale Buchan reversed his car in the Rosyth rank when trying to obstruct another vehicle.

Buchan, 24, of Middlebank House, appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.

He admitted that on July 20, at Rosyth taxi rank, in the course of his employment, he drove a car carelessly, reversed within the rank and used his vehicle to obstruct the path of another car.

Sheriff Pino di Emidio fined Buchan £245 and imposed four points on his licence.

Have been assuming the one above in Fife was a private motorist who was obstructed rather than another taxi, but it's not 100 per cent clear.

But I'm guessing it was a private motorist or Deliveroo driver or similar, and things got out of hand.

Certainly the case here that many such people think they're more entitled to park on the taxi rank than the taxi drivers, and *they* think *we're* getting in their way rather than the other way round.