Taxi Driver Online

This smacks of clueless councillors and pen-pushing senior police who roll up in the town centre one night and observe what's effectively the norm, and which police will normally turn a blind eye to.

Obviously stuff going on that's not ideal, but wouldn't be surprised if this was more about soundbites, a photo op and 'easy targets' rather than the nighttime economy dangers in the round


Bolton taxi drivers to be warned after town centre concerns

https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/24 ... -concerns/

Taxi drivers are set to be warned after complaints about “parking” and “illegal U-turns” in Bolton town centre.


Cllrs Ryan Bamforth and David Grant out with police in December (Image: Cllr Ryan Bamforth/The Bolton News)

This comes after a special police operation around Bradshawgate just before Christmas, where officers, joined by councillors, and dealt with several outbreaks of disturbances.

Cllr Ryan Bamforth, of Horwich North, said he noticed several concerns about taxi maneuvers and parking, which Bolton Council now says that the licencing unit will warn drivers about.

Cllr Bamforth said: “It was clear that the police have a lot to contend with and that was with one extra sergeant and eight extra constables on the ground.

“One matter arising was taxi drivers parking as and where they liked causing a risk the health and life along with illegal U-turn manoeuvres on a busy road.”

They were out between 11pm and 7am along with the Chief Inspector and Inspector of Greater Manchester Police’s Bolton district.

Addressing a full meeting of Bolton Council, Cllr Bamforth asked the authority’s leadership if they would meet with him and the others who came to discuss what could be done.

In response, cabinet member for regulatory services Cllr Sue Haworth said that taxi drivers would be warned about behaviour like this.

She said: “In addition to the joint enforcement work, the licencing unit is going to be asking for a communication to be circulated to all private hire and hackney carriage services and their operators.

“This will outline concerns in respect of the compliance with parking regulations, the illegal U-turns and other safety concerns.”

But Bolton Private Hire Association secretary Yasif Khan has said drivers in the town already know not to perform illegal manoeuvres despite the huge pressures they face.

He said: "Where does Bolton Council want us to go? They want the taxi drivers to bring the punters in, to help the night time economy and then to bring them home.

"They want us to do that but we've said we haven't got enough space there."

He added: "Our drivers, the Bolton drivers, we already tell them not to perform illegal manoeuvres.

"But there are licenced drivers from Wolverhampton and drivers from Uber there, not the Bolton drivers."

This below the line comment is in the same vein as the stuff above. Reads like it's another councillor commenting, but it's not clear - you'd think they'd actually identify themselves rather than just use some kind of shorthand online moniker, or whatever it is.

But she says Wolverhampton and Sefton licensing units will be informed, as well as the other nine Greater Manchester authorities

Just about sums up the enforcement issues with a lot of this stuff

Warn the ones doing the iffy stuff FFS.

There was a time when the police enforced the law, rather than writing to those that have done nothing wrong.

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IDFIMH