Post by Deleted on Aug 24, 2011 19:50:10 GMT
Bournemouth cabbies angry over who pays marshals
1:00pm Wednesday 24th August 2011
By Stephen Bailey
A TAXI drivers’ leader has branded an attempt to make them pay for night-time security staff as “illegal”.
Ashley Miller, from Bournemouth Taxi Trade Association, slammed the suggestion they should take over the cost of marshals who patrol a taxi rank.
Bournemouth council spends £1,000 a month during the summer paying for a private security firm to keep order on Friday and Saturday nights.
The marshals were first tried in 2006 and were brought back in 2009 and operate for 10 weeks a year.
However the money, which comes from public order initiatives and community safety project funding, is going to run out within three months.
The council is considering asking the taxi trade to finance the scheme through licence fees.
The licensing board agreed on Thursday to look into the legalities and whether this could be done.
Cllr Andrew Morgan, chairman of the licensing board, said at the meeting: “From what Dorset Police have said, taxi marshals are clearly important and we should keep them.”
The officers’ report into the idea cautioned that the law in taxi receipts is complex and open to legal interpretation.
Ashley Miller, who recently stepped down as association chairman and is awaiting a successor, said: “It’s illegal.
“They can’t put the put the costs on to our licences.
“There are around 1,100 private hire and hackney cabs in Bournemouth and probably only five per cent of them use the Horseshoe Common rank, where the marshals operate.
“To me, the marshals slow the rank down.
“Those people that use the rank would probably say they are happy the marshals are there but at the end of the day it’s a police problem.
“It should be the police marshalling the ranks.”
Acting Inspector Steve Lyne of Dorset Police said: “The marshals provide an effective deterrent to disorder within the taxi queue and as such, provide overall enhancement to Operation Protect which tackles violent crime in Dorset.”
1:00pm Wednesday 24th August 2011
By Stephen Bailey
A TAXI drivers’ leader has branded an attempt to make them pay for night-time security staff as “illegal”.
Ashley Miller, from Bournemouth Taxi Trade Association, slammed the suggestion they should take over the cost of marshals who patrol a taxi rank.
Bournemouth council spends £1,000 a month during the summer paying for a private security firm to keep order on Friday and Saturday nights.
The marshals were first tried in 2006 and were brought back in 2009 and operate for 10 weeks a year.
However the money, which comes from public order initiatives and community safety project funding, is going to run out within three months.
The council is considering asking the taxi trade to finance the scheme through licence fees.
The licensing board agreed on Thursday to look into the legalities and whether this could be done.
Cllr Andrew Morgan, chairman of the licensing board, said at the meeting: “From what Dorset Police have said, taxi marshals are clearly important and we should keep them.”
The officers’ report into the idea cautioned that the law in taxi receipts is complex and open to legal interpretation.
Ashley Miller, who recently stepped down as association chairman and is awaiting a successor, said: “It’s illegal.
“They can’t put the put the costs on to our licences.
“There are around 1,100 private hire and hackney cabs in Bournemouth and probably only five per cent of them use the Horseshoe Common rank, where the marshals operate.
“To me, the marshals slow the rank down.
“Those people that use the rank would probably say they are happy the marshals are there but at the end of the day it’s a police problem.
“It should be the police marshalling the ranks.”
Acting Inspector Steve Lyne of Dorset Police said: “The marshals provide an effective deterrent to disorder within the taxi queue and as such, provide overall enhancement to Operation Protect which tackles violent crime in Dorset.”