Taxi Driver Online

'Taxi' here probably just means not Uber

On a more serious note, the taxi representative's (or whatever he is) response is, er, unconvincing


Blackpool's 'taxi wars' rage on as Uber driver claims he was 'boxed in' and threatened by rival cabbies

https://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news ... es-4909063

An Uber driver claimed he was ‘boxed in’ by Blackpool cabbies and threatened with a metal pole, as the resort’s ‘taxi wars’ rage on.

The Uber driver said he was worried for his safety after he was reportedly confronted by two taxi drivers in Bispham Road in November.

Blackpool Council granted Uber a license to operate in August after determining the operator was suitable to hold an operator's licence. The Council said it was legally obligated to issue the license after Uber met all the necessary criteria for a private hire operator's licence.

The decision was unpopular with Blackpool’s private hire and Hackney Carriage drivers, who voiced concern that Uber’s cheaper fares would damage the livelihoods of local cabbies.

According to one Uber driver, speaking anonymously, the tension between the two groups led to the frightening confrontation in Bispham last month.

He said: “I was driving down Bispham Road a few weeks ago and two taxi drivers blocked me in and had a metal pole. But we are licensed now and we are here to stay."

However, Blackpool taxi driver Neil Charnock dismissed the Uber’s driver’s claims.

He said: “It is very much a mystery, I cannot think of anyone so stupid enough to commit such an offence.

“There have been no reports to me from any private hire drivers or Hackney Carriage drivers from the Blackpool area, and such an incident should be reported directly to the police.

“Until these allegations are investigated, we should leave them as just rumour. Most Vehicles have cameras, so you would expect the alleged offence would be caught on camera and reported to police.”

Lancashire Police were approached for comment.

And why would any driver report such an incident to Mr Charnock, whatever precisely his role and status is.

I can only really think of one reason any driver involved in something like this would report to him

He's either being disingenuous or naive. Let's be charitable and assume it's the latter

That is a very busy road if something like that happened there would be other traffic and winesses surely ?

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

Wrong town, that is Bispham Rd in Cleveleys.
There is also the one in Poulton that comes into Blackpool near Bispham Collage.

I would assume that they are referring to the one in Blackpool that runs from the Layton area up to Bispham village. This starts south of Layton train station (this catches a lot of people out) and then on the North of the train tracks (where there is a station car park) and then runs North past a couple of sections of shops and the Squirrel pub.

Thanks, Cerebrus - the one I was looking at was top result in Google, and it was labelled 'Cleveleys, Blackpool', so I assumed that was it (have removed content of post)

(Google very useful, obviously - however, a good slave but bad master...)

If I'm now looking at the right one, according to Google it looks like it's in two parts, effectively. Lower bit looks quiet and residential and goes up close to Layton station. The other bit north of that is the A587, so a busier road, but looks mainly residential.

But seems to cover quite a length of road in total (the quiet residential bit about 300 yards, and including the A-road about 1.5 miles in total) so late night and in the dark it might have happened anywhere.

Assuming, of course, it did happen as claimed. While the driver rep's response was in my opinion unconvincing, there may well have been a bit of exaggeration about the actual incident. But, I mean, conflict and kick offs between members of the trade - who would have expected that?

(As per usual at this time of the year here, slow night on the rank, and went down a bit of a rabbit hole

And I'm quite into maps and suchlike )


For what it's worth, Cerebrus, Google Maps shows the Blackpool boundary a bit further north than it should be - along Victoria Road West, so according to Google that other, shorter Bispham Road is in Blackpool

(The Google boundaries shown below seem to very roughly follow the council area, but only roughly, hence it categorising the Bispham Road in Cleveleys as being in Blackpool )

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Black ... FQAw%3D%3D

The Blackpool Council ward boundary map for Anchorsholme shows the proper boundary, which follows the line of Kingsway and then continues, hence the very southmost part of that Bispham Road is actually in the Blackpool Council area

https://www.blackpool.gov.uk/Your-Counc ... sholme.pdf

The same boundary from the perspective of the Jubilee ward in the Wyre Council borough:

https://www.wyre.gov.uk/downloads/file/621/jubilee-ward

In many ways I actually prefer the much maligned Bing for mapping, and it shows the correct boundary line here, although Bing is next to useless as regards its equivalent of Google's StreetView

https://www.bing.com/maps?cp=53.873578% ... 5&lvl=15.5

Bing Maps also include the excellent and zoomable Ordnance Survey maps. I particularly like the 1:50,000 Landranger series, which I always think give a very good impression of an area in terms of urban/rural, towns, villages, roads, countryside etc, not to mention the wider geography in terms of stuff like rivers and uplands, hills and mountains etc. Of course, not much use for individual street names and the like, unless you use a much higher level of zoom, but which then loses the wider geographical/landscape impression, but then provides an outline of individual building shapes, and also house numbers

https://www.bing.com/maps?cp=53.846794% ... .5&style=s