Taxi Driver Online

Angry taxi drivers disrupt council cabinet meeting

ANGRY taxi drivers disrupted a Chelmsford Council meeting in their fight to stop more licences being issued.

Around 80 taxi owners and drivers invaded the cabinet meeting on Tuesday night - sounding airhorns and unfurling a banner - and caused the councillors to stop the meeting.

Terry Michel, secretary of Chelmsford Taxi Association, said: “All we want the council to do is stop issuing Hackney Carriage plates while a survey is carried out but they refuse to do this because they know it will show there are too many taxis on the streets.

“We are doing our best to embarrass this council and to show them how strong the feelings are.

“Many of our members are on the brink of going under, missing vehicle payments and household bills.

“This is part of our continued campaign against Chelmsford Borough Council and its crazy policy that they refuse to change.”

The drivers have already held wildcat strikes and Mr Michel said they are organising a petition for members of the public to sign.

He also said that further industrial action was being planned.

Roy Whitehead, leader of the council, said the meeting was drawing to a close when the taxi drivers arrived.

“I suspended the meeting and we left by a rear exit. They made their feelings clear and then left peacefully. We returned and then I finished the meeting.

“We were expecting them to arrive at the beginning of the meeting for the public question time and would have welcomed a question and answer debate.

“What they did was not the ideal way to make their point.”

Mr Whitehead said the council was proposing to set up a small working group to report back to the council’s overview and scrutiny committee in February on a review of the taxi situation.

Also the council along with other local authorities would be represented at a national conference in February organised by the local government association to look into the issue of taxi regulation.

Mr Whitehead said eight new licences had been issued this year and none since September.

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