Taxi Driver Online

Leeds Bradford Airport taxi rank plans backed

Senior councillors in Leeds have thrown their weight behind calls for a taxi rank to be laid out near Leeds-Bradford International Airport. The council’s City Development Scrutiny Board last month recommended a rank should be established on Whitehouse Lane, a proposal not supported by the bosses at the privately-run international airport.

Now, the council’s Executive Board has agreed officers should draw up plans for a rank, although no action will be taken over the summer to allow for more talks between the airport and the council. Taxis are not allowed to “rank up” at the airport as it has a contract with a private hire company.

It has prompted claims from the hackney carriage operators that they are not being treated fairly and complaints that city centre congestion has increased as taxis – no longer able to wait at the airport – ply for trade.

Coun Keith Wakefield, council leader, said it would be preferable for a solution suiting all sides to be found as part of an airport surface access strategy currently being developed. He added: “I recognise the importance of the airport but we also want fair access for the hackney trade.”

Supporting the approach being taken, Coun Andrew Carter, Conservative group leader, said: “It is the right thing to put pressure on to get an access strategy agreed while progressing the probability of a rank in Whitehouse Lane.”

Coun Stewart Golton, Liberal Democrat group leader, said taxis should be part of the transport mix available to visitors to Leeds arriving at the airport near Yeadon. It has been estimated a rank would cost about £80,000 to provide and the hackney carriage associations have offered a £20,000 contribution.

Paul Landau, chairman of the Unite Leeds Hackney Carriage Association, told the YEP: “It would have been good to have a rank placed there for the summer holiday business as the winter schedule is obviously less demanding.”

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IDFIMH

What is the £80,000 being used for?

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IDFIMH

Good name for a Hackney Carriage rep - weren't landaus a sort of forerunner to the HC?

In fact it seems some LAs still licence landaus as HCs:

http://www.blackpool.gov.uk/Services/G- ... e/Home.htm

Fat cat salaries.

FIFAesque bungs perhaps?

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Brummie Cabbie.

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The Vito Euro 6 model?

It's not just a case of jobsworth jack painting some yellow road markings - the road ( whitehouse lane) where the rank has been earmarked for is quite narrow and with it been the only way in or out of the airport it will take much more work - the concern is now that there's a '£2' to drop off tariff that Everyman and his dog will be dropping off on our rank

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Justice for the 96 YNWA