Blackburn taxi drivers call for compensationBLACKBURN taxi drivers are calling for compensation because the rebuilding of the railway station taxi rank is running weeks behind schedule.
They claim the delays are making it difficult for them to earn enough to live on.
Originally Blackburn with Darwen council promised the work, which started in mid-August, would take five weeks.
Now Mohammed Mangera, vice chairman of the Blackburn with Darwen Hackney Carriage Association, said they have been told the rebuilding will finish by the end of this month, more than four weeks late.
The married father of three said: “We were promised the work would take five weeks and it’s taking at least twice as long.
“They said they would put up signs to direct people to a new rank behind the station and to the existing one on High Street but they just haven’t worked.
“Train passengers want to pick up a taxi outside the station.
“We have suffered a huge loss of trade, especially with all the other Cathedral Quarter works going on in the town centre.
“We are self-employed and have mouths to feed. We can’t afford this.
“Taxi drivers were prepared to accept five weeks of disruption but not this.
“We want some form of compensation not for the five weeks we expected without the rank but for the extra weeks delay.
“In addition, we want a cast-iron guarantee that the rank will be back in use by the end of September.
“We have had long queues of empty taxis on High Street waiting for fares that don’t come.”
Colleague and father-of-two Irfan Khan said: “We just can’t afford this.
“I have a family to look after and put food on the table for.
“Unless the council does something to help us, some taxi drivers will not be able to continue.”
Driver Asif Muxammad (corr) said: “The loss of the station rank and all the road disruption in the town centre has devastated out trade “A lot of taxi drivers are really struggling.”
Council officials said that the rebuilding has taken longer than expected because extra works were needed to secure a retaining wall near the rank.
Blackburn with Darwen regeneration boss Maureen Bateson said: “I am aware of the issue.”
http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/ne ... pensation/
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