Taxi Driver Online

Westcliff: Cabbies' threat to block town

Cab drivers have not ruled out shutting Southend down with a blockade if a brewing dispute with a hire car company is not resolved.

The dispute is between licensed Hackney carriage cabbies and hire car drivers who pick up customers from Westcliff station.

The licensed drivers' taxi rank was moved by the council last year from a site near the station, in Hamlet Court Road, to a less prominent position in a nearby slip road.

Paul Sutton, former chairman of Southend Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, said his colleagues were furious that Southend Radio Cars had been allowed to establish a prime pick-up point in nearby Ditton Court Road.

He said: "A lot of our drivers are really angry about this. We were led to believe the council planned to adopt the road from the rail authorities for a legal taxi rank."

A Southend Council spokesman said Ditton Court Road, where the hire cars parked, was private land owned by the rail company c2c.