Taxi Driver Online

Bah humbug taxi drivers as theatre fans miss show


DISABLED theatre fans missed a show because taxi drivers would not move their vehicles, it was claimed.

On December 13, a minibus arrived at the Met Theatre in Silver Street, Bury, in time for the 1.30pm show of Scrooge.

But, according to staff from The Met, the minibus was unable to park and drop off the passengers because Hackney Carriages were parked in a loading pay at the theatre entrance. A taxi rank begins outside Bury Transport Interchange and often snakes back past The Met.

The Met’s director, David Agnew, formally complained to Bury Council, who referred the issue to last night’s meeting of Bury licensing committee.

The meeting agenda said: “It appears that a number of taxis were illegally parked in the loading bay and bus stop in front of the premises.

“They refused to move when requested to do so by staff at The Met.

“As a result, a group of wheelchair users could not be dropped off and missed the show they were supposed to be attending.”

Mr Agnew said: “It is hugely disappointing that visitors to Bury should suffer this sort of experience.

“The Met works hard to attract visitors from throughout the North West and trusts that other licensed activities will support important cultural activity “We are delighted that Bury Council are willing to take action to support the ongoing success of businesses.”

Charles Oakes, chairman of Bury Hackney Drivers’ Association, which represent most of Bury’s 104 registered black-cab drivers, said: “There are horrendous parking problems in Bury town centre and the council needs to do more to allocate parking spaces for our Hackney carriages.

“Having said that, it’s not right for taxi drivers to park in a loading bay, especially when it has had a knock-on effect for disabled people wanting to visit the theatre.

“I will contact the drivers with a view to solving the problem and, if the disabled people involved would like to contact me, I would be delighted to speak to them.”

http://www.burytimes.co.uk/news/9467525 ... miss_show/

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Same problem here the taxi rank ends just before the theatre so its great fun trying to unlaod wheelchair bound passengers !! However the road is wide enough to double park so less of a problem except that once you've blocked vehicles in they expect you to move half way through unloading because the cars on the rank have moved forward !

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

Strikes me that these Taxi Drivers were being really stupid. Such an attitude is bound to bring in bad publicity.

You'd have thought that, between themselves, they could have made a space for the vehicle to unload and then move back into their positions.

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Don't dream it ~ Be it.

I can't believe for a second that those folks missed the show.

Even if the vehicle had to unloads 50 yards down the road, it wouldn't have meant the show was missed.

Someone, IMO, is telling porkies to make a point.

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IDFIMH

The show was probably due to start and because it was a pantomime with children taking part there are strict time limits for them to be on stage. Because these passengers were disabled it would probably not be safe to allow them into the auditaurium once the show had started.

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Grandad,