Taxi Driver Online

£1 levy scheme to catch a taxi from Norwich's tombland

Taxi passengers could soon be asked to pay £1 to catch a cab from Norwich's Tombland under plans to secure the future of the city's taxi-marshalling scheme. But there are fears the charge - on top of existing fares - could lead cabbies and punters alike to desert the rank in favour of pick-ups further along the street.

The initiative, launched in 2008, involves security staff supervising the taxi rank on Friday and Saturday night to minimise trouble and help ensure people get home safely. Intially financed by security firms as a trial, it later attracted Home Office funding and was then kept afloat by donations from pubs, clubs and restaurants in the Prince of Wales Road area.

Funds ran out last month and there were fears that the scheme could be withdrawn if other means of financing it were not found. But Norwich City Licensing Forum has been looking at ways to make the Tombland scheme self-supporting and hopes to roll it out to other marshalled ranks elsewhere in the city centre, possibly extending the marshals' hours until 6am.

Its working party has now approved a proposal for a charge of £1 per cab, which passengers would pay via a ticket machine in Tombland, and agreed to ask licensed businesses in the area to refund the charge on receipt of a dated ticket. Members hope that if the city council gives permission for the ticket machine to be installed in Tombland, the new scheme could be up and running by November.

Nick De'Ath, who chairs the forum and runs The Lawyer and The Unthank Arms, said: “This seems to us to be the fairest way to pay for the service provided by our marshals while, at the same time, offering the opportunity for businesses that benefit as well as their customers to contribute to the costs if they wish and ensure at the same time the safety of their clientele.”

Julian Foster, chairman of the City Centre Safer Neighbourhood Action Panel, said the area was a priority for the local police safer neighbourhood team and that continuing the scheme would allay fears over anti-social behaviour.

“I am delighted, too, that we have at last broken through the obstruction experienced elsewhere in the country caused by a the lack of public funding to retain the marshals who provide such a useful and worthwhile service,” he said.

“I hope, too, that the public will appreciate the opportunity it provides to make a night-out in Norwich a safe experience at a minimal extra cost to the public; a means for businesses to contribute towards that cost if they wish and a service to participating cab drivers that will ensure their cabs are not misused by people they would rather not have in their cabs and who might cause them trouble if they had not been vetted by our marshals.”

But cab driver Patrick Keenaghan said the scheme would drive business away from the Tombland rank. “If people have to pay £1, they are just going to flag down a cab a few yards down the road where they don't have to pay,” he said.

“This will make life even more difficult for drivers who are already working 18 hours a day just to pay the bills.”

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IDFIMH

The licensed premises cause the problems, they should be the ones that solve it by paying for the marshals.

And I think the £1 a cab is a lot to fund two marshals on one rank.

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IDFIMH