Taxi drivers hit out at Council for ‘no notice’ over closure of rank

Mar 10 2008 by Katie Norman, South Wales Echo

TAXI drivers fear they will lose money and customers will be left stranded as a popular city rank is closed for improvement work.

The taxi rank opposite Woolworths in Cowbridge Road East, Canton, Cardiff, will close for six weeks from today while work to improve the nearby car park in Albert Street is carried out.

Taxi drivers are angry that they have been given less than a week’s notice about the work and will have nowhere to pick up customers in the area for the next six weeks.

Roy Jones, a driver from Victoria Park, Cardiff, said: “We usually take 2,000 to 3,000 people a week from that rank in the daytime alone.

“We take old ladies, people in wheelchairs and mothers with their pushchairs who can’t manage on the bus with their shopping.

“They’re going to be stuck for six weeks because we’re not going to be there.”

He also voiced concerns about deliveries to shops in the street.

Fellow taxi driver Allan Sparkes, from Canton, was disgusted the drivers only found out about Cardiff council’s plans last Wednesday.

He said: “We have massive concerns. There are 20 to 30 drivers who work this rank and there are only four or five ranks in the whole city.

“We’ve been told to use the area outside Tesco but there’s only a few spaces and also we have the problem of other people parking there because it’s not a rank.

“We’ve only had a few days’ notice so we’ve had no chance to sort this out.”

A council spokeswoman said the improvement works aimed to reduce crime in the area.

She said: “Work to relocate the car park and install CCTV cameras will mean the taxi rank will be temporarily out of action.

“We understand the predicament facing the taxi drivers and urge them to use other streets in the area that are legal for them to park on and work with us to ensure Albert Street becomes safer and more user friendly.”

katie.norman@mediawales.co.uk