Taxi Driver Online

Thought this wasn't worth bothering with, but interesting stuff about the required parking allocation, and also the no-walk up restriction in view of the nature of the surrounding area


Nelson MOT centre allowed to operate as taxi booking office


Image: Google/Lancashire Telegraph

Permission has been granted to turn an car garage into an MOT centre and taxi booking office.

Rizwan Chaudhri, of Bradley Fold MOT and Tyre Bay in Bradley Fold, Bankhouse Road, Nelson, applied to Pendle Council in July to change the use of the existing MOT office so that it could accommodate a taxi booking service alongside.

Prior planning permission had been granted for the taxi booking office to be located in an adjacent building, but following a fire, this had to be demolished.

A planning statement submitted to the council read: “The proposals are to use the existing office that serves the MOT business.

“The proposals are to use the office for both its existing use as well as the taxi booking office.

“The taxi booking office was located in an adjacent building, that was damaged in a fire and had to be demolished.

“The existing planning permission granted permission for seven private hire vehicles to be operated from the site.

“The car spaces were located along the gable end of Bankhouse Road.

“The block of houses numbering 49 -57 Bankhouse Road was demolished in 2014 and is now a car park with 13 car spaces and access off Bradley Fold.

“This car park is owned by Pendle Council and is leased to the applicant on 25 year lease.

“The original parking as approved was compromised when the block of houses was demolished and turned into a car park.

“The new application requires only five spaces for the taxi business.

“There is ample room for parking on the site, and these spaces can be either be sited on the car park, or on the area vacated by the former building.

“The taxi booking office will be manned seven days a week from 7am until 3am the following morning, equivalent to three-four full time employees.

“The office is for telephone bookings only, and will not be accessible for members of the public.”

Lancashire County Council’s Highways department raised no objections with the application but stated that should approval be granted, under no circumstances should the office be used to collect fares from the site.

A statement from LCC read: “Five off-road parking spaces are proposed adjacent to the existing MOT office. The borough council's parking standards are that one parking space per 1.5 vehicle should be provided for taxi booking offices.

“Therefore, no more than seven private hire vehicles should be allowed to operate from the site at any one time to ensure that adequate off-road parking is maintained and so that the planning authority can control the number of vehicles licensed to operate from the site.

“The taxi booking office use hereby approved shall operate solely as a telephone and computerised booking office in association with a taxi/private hire vehicle business.

“At no time shall drivers employed for the purposes of operating the taxi/private hire vehicle business collect fares at the application site/premises.

“The premises shall not be open to visiting members of the public to protect the amenities of residents, and in the interests of access and highway safety.”

Full approval was granted by Pendle Council on September 15.

Aye, right

If this has any validity at all, it must surely only be for new applications, thus in effect a form of protectionism for incumbent operators.

Hope they don't want to expand from seven to eight vehicles


The office location seems to be somewhere down at then end of this road where the garages etc are.

But if you swing the Streetview round 360 degrees, all that can be seen are open spaces and boarded up houses

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.8399262 ... 312!8i6656

And I doubt there would be much further detriment to 'amenity' for those living in the area from the odd walk up job for a five-car office

As for the 'access and highway safety' angle, likewise that seems to be more from the perspective of pen-pushers sitting in an office miles away, as opposed to people actually living there. I wouldn't doubt that residents there won't want a cab office there, but in the grand scheme of things I suspect it's the least of their worries


This is the closer view that the Lancashire Telegraph has used, but without crediting it to Google

Spin the Streetview round 360 degrees and all that can be seen are boarded up windows of the houses

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.840112, ... 312!8i6656


On the other hand, the latest Streetviews above date from 2011 and 2014, so maybe the area is now on the up and up.

But one of those areas that Google regards as the land that time forgot...

typical Lancashire mill town run down but with councillors filled with a sense of civic duty and pride

fun fact Nelson Football club were once a football league side

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

Just shows the complete ignorance decision makers have when it comes to our trade.

No car is going to be at the office, other than maybe the staff's personal cars.

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IDFIMH