Taxi Driver Online

Fares fair row in Royal Parks

The Royal Parks are supposed to be "London's personal space", bequeathed for the enjoyment of princes and paupers alike. But they have drawn the line at minicab drivers, who are not welcome on their thoroughfares.

The mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has become embroiled in a dispute with the administrators of London's open spaces over an ancient law which prevents all private hire vehicles except black taxis from plying their trade on key roads through the capital.

Mr Livingstone's Transport for London authority is in the process of licensing the capital's hitherto unregulated minicab industry. So far, 31,000 vehicles have been awarded windscreen stickers entitling them to carry paying passengers.

But the stickers make minicabs easy to spot and have formalised their status as "commercial vehicles", which means they are banned from using roads administered by the Royal Parks - including the Mall, Birdcage Walk, Constitution Hill and short-cuts through Regent's Park, Hyde Park and Richmond Park.

The mayor's office is lobbying the culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, to amend the law. But its efforts are meeting stiff opposition from the Royal Parks' authority.

The parks' statutes are intended to prevent lorries, vans and heavy vehicles from using the parks as a cut-through. Black taxis are exempt so they can pick up sunbathers and visitors.

John Griffin, the chairman of Addison Lee, which operates a fleet of 1,000 minicabs, said: "The whole thing is preposterous. There's nothing private about the royal parks - we, the public, pay for them through our taxes."

A TfL spokesman said the mayor's office was in contact with the Department for Culture on the issue.

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Happy to be legit.

A tad like your yobbish behaviour outside a certain well known wine bar.

Is'nt this awful, not only are they denying access, they also refer to them as minicabs. Just awful.

Indeed.

But surely not as bad as Charlie Slater

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

He' certainly a bad actor.

The Queen does not permit headbutting billy-goats in her park


Claude

But the PCO deem him 'fit and proper'.

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IDFIMH

does she allow minicab hunting?

Captain cab

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

it would have been mildly amusing if the paper spelled taxes taxis

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

Any old flotsam and jetsam can now become PH, even you. London Hackney is a different matter. The likes of you could never cut the mustard and that is why this forum exists and is constantly trying to blur the distinct difference between proper cab drivers and the likes of you and billy-goat.

The Queen knows who to hob-nob with in her lovely parks. No candy floss vans or late night Brighton back-door banditry in the parks either! Watch yer backs!!

Claude

Even more can become touts, its free and earns you good pocket money on a Friday and Saturday night.

Think I'll give it a go in the Discovery this week see if I can nick some 'corporates' from Premier Despatch.

Au contraire Maurice.

You're confusing our highlighting of arbitrary quantitative barriers to becoming a 'proper cab driver' with the qualitative barrier that exists in London.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

More and more you sound like a solicitor, are you the taxi expert from Manchester? or is it Penri, the mild manored janitor? Could be!

Mmm...you are talking about Hong Kong Fooey here? And here's me been thinking that it was Henri for the last 30 years

As for the solicitor nonsense, I wouldn't believe some of the crap on here and other websites. It's not a question of the site being 'full of solicitors pretending to be taxi drivers', more like taxi drivers pretending to be solicitors.

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Taxi Driver Online
www.taxi-driver.co.uk

Ha Ha, so did I until I looked it up on 'cream', 'Penri' it is! See how exciting life can be when the cab's in getting its steering sorted.