Taxi price hike for Cheltenham Festival race week touristsPRIVATE taxi firms in Cheltenham have provoked anger by targeting race week visitors with punishing fare hikes.
Starline Taxis, based in Royal Well Place, has instructed drivers to charge customers extra if they are thought to be visiting the town for the four-day racing extravaganza, which starts today.
Under the rates passengers will be charged as much as £7 to get to the race course from the town centre, £12 to get there from the train station and £48 if they are travelling from Moreton-in-Marsh. The move has been criticised by borough council chiefs, who say it is discriminatory.
One driver at the company was asked by the Echo how he could tell who was a race goer and who wasn't.
He replied: "You can tell by their faces."
An instruction sheet has been distributed to Starline employees warning them not to apply the charges to Cheltenham residents.
It said: "The race week price guide is only for race goers from outside Cheltenham – not locals.
"We are always pleased to see guests in Cheltenham but remember who helps to pay your wages the rest of the year."
Every year tens of thousands of people descend on the town, providing a welcome boost to businesses.
But borough councillor Diggory Seacome (C, Lansdown), who chairs the authority's licensing committee, said firms were wrong to discriminate in such a way.
He said: "I don't think it's right at all but private firms are entitled to set the rate at whatever level they see fit.
"What they are doing is effectively capitalising on people's ignorance of the area.
"However, it's up to the punter to agree a price before they get in, so they don't have to pay if they don't want to."
Louis Krog, senior licensing officer at the council, said the authority was responsible for setting the minimum and maximum fares for Hackney carriage drivers, but could not regulate the prices set by private hire cabs.
Starline Taxis declined to comment on the matter.
But a spokesman for Spa Tax taxis, in Albion Street, said the hike was standard practice among cab firms in the town.
"It's not just about making money out of people visiting the town," he said. "It's to compensate for the fact that you spend a lot of time queuing."
http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/ ... story.html
Login
Register
FAQ
