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PostPosted: Thu Jul 21, 2011 9:06 am 
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St Albans taxi drivers prepare for demonstration

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TAXI drivers are preparing to stage a demonstration next week to send out their message of anger to St Albans District Council.

About 100 members of the St Albans Taxi Association have voted on the action, after failing to persuade the council to regulate the number of Hackney Carriage licences handed out.

Irshad Khan, chairman of the group, said the drivers are now at the end of their tether and do not see any other way of getting their message across.

On Monday, July 25, the drivers will set off from St Albans City Station at 4pm, and plan to drive around the city.

Mr Khan said: “How else can we shout our message any louder. Of course we don’t want to do this because we provide a public service, so we don’t want to cause disruption to our customers.”

Mr Khan said the drivers are continuously feeling their requests are falling on deaf ears, and hope council can come to some agreement on licence numbers.

The association will also be demonstrating about the high prices of permits which drivers have to buy in order to trade from the train station.

http://www.stalbansreview.co.uk/news/

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PostPosted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 6:21 pm 
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Taxi demonstration in St Albans


ABOUT 50 cabbies have joined a convoy being driven through the centre of St Albans this afternoon in protest against a district council decision to refuse a request to cap the number of hackney carriage vehicle licences being issued.

The demonstration, which began at 4pm, means that members of the St Albans and Harpenden Taxi Association will not pick up passengers from inner city taxi ranks until the protest ends at about 7pm.

The association was annoyed when St Albans district council recently rejected a request to impose a limit on the number of licences issued. The council currently licences 259 hackney carriage vehicles, up from 127 in 1999, when it removed restrictions.


http://www.hertsad.co.uk/news/

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PostPosted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 1:22 pm 
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St Albans taxi drivers plan second demo


TAXI drivers staged a demonstration yesterday evening, and have already planned another for next week, after claiming the high number of licences which have been handed out in the city is jeopardising their future.

About 50 to 60 members of the St Albans Taxi Association drove in convoy around the city centre for some two hours to get their message across to St Albans District Council.

Irshad Khan, chairman of the group, said the drivers face a daily struggle to pick up trade because there are simply too many cabs on the district’s roads.

He said: “Some days we can be sat in the rank in St Peters Street for over an hour before we get a job, this is our livelihood which is being ruined.

“We’re providing a public service here, and it feels like we are not being treated as fairly as others who provide a public service.

“This is how we feed our families, we depend on this money, but it feels like we are being forced to take action because nobody listens to our problems.”

Mr Khan said even when customers are asked they agree there are too many taxis to service the city centre rank.

Between 1995 and 1999 the council restricted the number of Hackney Carriage licences it issued.

At the time the limit was lifted just 127 licenced taxi’s operated in St Albans and Harpenden. As of February this year, there are 259 licenced drivers on the roads.

In response to this the association met with the district council’s licensing and regulatory committee on July to request a cap to be introduced.

However their calls were rejected and the council said it was following guidance from the Office of Fair Trading and Department of Transport reports on best practice, which recommends licensing authorities do not impose restrictions on the quantity of licensed Hackney Carriage vehicles.

This week’s demo, which began at 4pm, caused traffic chaos in the city centre during the rush hour as the drivers followed in convoy from the city station, down Hatfield Road, into St Peters Street, then Victoria Road and back to the station.

They had boycotted both the St Peters Street and St Albans City Station rank, not picking up customers for the two hours they were demonstrating.

The drivers’ other frustration was with First Capital Connect and its hike in trading permits for the city station.

The association met with the rail company a month ago and St Albans MP Anne Main has vowed to support their plight.

The drivers plan to stage a second demo in St Peters Street next week.

source: http://www.stalbansreview.co.uk/news/

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