A rare piece from the Keswick Reminder
Some odd stuff in here, though - not that I'm doubting the driver numbers cited, but find it hard to get my head round this kind of stuff when up here the streets are strewn with vacant taxis at the moment.
And some odd comments from the main protagonist here...
Growing frustration over lack of taxis in Keswick
https://keswickreminder.co.uk/2025/11/2 ... n-keswick/
A management consultant who regularly commutes to London says the lack of taxis in the Keswick area is becoming an “enormous” problem impacting businesses and the social life of the area’s residents.
Andy Speck, of Thornthwaite, who says that he spends around £400 a month with Davies Taxis in Keswick, travelling from his Thornthwaite home to Penrith station and attending social events, says that for many people getting a taxi is becoming a real challenge as there are so few available.
He said that adding to the problem was the general unreliability of buses after 8pm and cited a recent example where members of the Cumbria Wine Society, of which he is a member, were left stranded at Bassenthwaite for half an hour in the rain after attending a tasting when the 9.30pm bus failed to turn up and no taxis were available to pick them up. They had to rely on a member, who had had much less to drink than the others, to “risk” driving home. Mr Speck said the wine society meets regularly at Armathwaite Hall but may have to consider moving to another venue if the situation does not improve.
“A couple of weeks ago I got the train from London to Penrith and a taxi picked me up at 8.30pm and the driver had three calls on the 25-minute journey from people wanting taxis that evening,” said Mr Speck. “The final one was from a French lady who had got a bus into Keswick and needed to go down the Borrowdale valley.
“The driver was not working any more after me but he took pity on the woman, who would have been stranded in the town with her eight-year-old daughter, and drove her down the valley.”
Mr Speck said that due to traffic no taxis will travel down Borrowdale in the afternoon as it can take them an hour to return. “Cumberland Council regulates the taxi fares and the charging is based on distance travelled,” said Mr Speck. “But if a taxi is stuck in a traffic jam it is not making any money whereas in London the fare is based on distance and time.”
He said that he has heard many stories about tourists being left stranded in Keswick and unable to reach their hotel and adds that some visitors wrongly assume that the area will be served by Uber. He said out-of-town restaurants are suffering as people are unable to get there or back.
Mr Speck says his partner Gillian Pimblett, who is a member of Above Derwent Parish Council, has raised the issue with Cumberland Council who told her that there was nothing it could do. “They said if there is no supply there must be no demand,” said Mr Speck. “But there is lots of demand but people cannot make it economic.”
A spokesperson for Davies Taxis, who did not wish to be named, said the lack of taxis had become “a massive problem”.
“There are only two drivers left here and I’m only part-time,” he said. “I am trying to retire myself and all the other taxi drivers have gone on their own and will only come out at night. We are trying to do all the services but we are finding it impossible.
“We had 15 drivers a couple of years ago but there are only one-and-a-half of us now. The reason people have left Davies’s is that some have retired, some have gone with ill health and some have gone on their own but are not keen on working in the daytime.”
