Taxi Driver Online

Cabbies ‘racist taunts’ claims


TAXI drivers in Bournemouth have been racially abusing each other, it has been claimed.

The situation has become so bad that council chiefs have called emergency talks after complaints from Chinese and Arabic drivers.

Cllr Anson Westbrook, chair of Bournemouth council's licensing board, told the Daily Echo that he is not going to allow the issue to be swept under the carpet.

He said: "If there is a situation it should be stamped out immediately. There is a perceived tension among the city's hackney carriage drivers, but we have to put our finger on it. We cannot put this issue behind closed doors."

Keith Evans, licensing officer, has received at least three complaints over the last 12 months about racism among drivers. He said: "Specific allegations of racism are dealt with by the police, but they are also the concern of local authorities."

David Shire, of the Dorset Racial Equality Council, claims that the council does not have correct procedures in place to deal with racial complaints.

He said: "The council haven't decided how they will respond to racism from anyone, not just taxi drivers."

Ashley Miller, chairman of the Bournemouth Station Taxi Association, denied that there was a racism problem.

He said: "Occasionally drivers will have digs at one another. Like in any job not everyone likes everyone else. We have what is known as etiquette, and those that don't follow this etiquette are told, whether they're Chinese, Arab or white."

There are 249 hackney carriages in Bournemouth and 160 of them are members of the association.

Mr Miller said problems in the taxi trade had "nothing to do with racism".

Inspector Neil MacBean said: "Racism will not be tolerated from drivers or passengers and we will take a strong stance against it."

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