Lancaster cabbie's plea over public's use of ranks

A taxi driver in Lancaster is urging motorists to be more respectful towards cabbies by not parking in designated taxi spots around the city centre.
The taxi rank outside KFC in Penny Street. Photo: Google Street ViewThe taxi rank outside KFC in Penny Street. Photo: Google Street View
The taxi rank outside KFC in Penny Street. Photo: Google Street View

Steven Towers, 57, said he and other taxi drivers are regularly verbally abused by memberrs of the public when they are asked not to park in official taxi ranks or parking spots.

He said the issue is particularly bad outside KFC in Penny Street, as well as in Brock Street and North Road.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We can never park by KFC because of all the private cars that use it,” he said. “The rank has been there for 30 years butI have had verbal abuse and threatening abuse when I’ve told people not to park there.”

Steven said the area has clear signage preventing people from parking at any time, except taxis.

“We are not getting any help from the people we should be getting help from,” Steven, a driver for 848848 taxis, said.

“A lot of other drivers have said they have tried to park there and got some abuse as well.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We are just trying to do a public service and get treated like this. We do courses in how to treat the general public, but there are a lot of people who don’t know how to treat us.”

A spokesman for Lancashire County Council said: “We carry out daily enforcement of parking regulations in Lancaster city centre as it’s one of the county’s busiest areas.

“We’re aware of some issues with the areas signed for use by taxis on Brock Street and Penny Street and are currently looking into the situation to consider how the issues could be resolved.”

The spokesman added that 33 penalty notices have been issued for illegal parking at the taxi rank in North Road since the start of October, and all of the roads are visited most days, sometimes more than once.