Taxis will be forced to “circle the town” after cap lift

taxis-in-high-wycombe Source: Bucks Free Press

WORRIED cabbies have warned an influx of taxis would bring High Wycombe to a standstill following a council’s decision to lift a ban on hackney carriage numbers.

Wycombe District Councillors decided to lift the cap on the number of unbooked taxis allowed to work in the district in 2004 following a Government recommendation.

The ruling came into effect last week and allows anyone with a car, providing it is wheelchair accessible, to apply for a licence in a bid to boost taxi numbers available at peak times.

Currently, 50 licensed hackney carriages operate in the district but concerned cabbies believe the council’s decision will force drivers to “circle the town like vultures” because of the limited number of taxi ranks available and a perceived lack of public demand.

Ghulam Rascool said: “The town centre is dead, anyone that walks down the High Street will see loads of taxis just sitting there with nothing to do.

“Sainsbury’s has a taxi rank but we could wait for hours before we get a job, there’s also a taxi rank at Eden’s Tesco but we’re only allowed 20mins to wait.

“The only reasonably busy place is the train station (pictured) at peak times but every taxi driver knows that and it causes gridlock on the Amersham Hill with commuters.

“The council’s decision is a joke – there’s not enough work or parking spaces for the existing 50 cars as it is, let alone if the number of taxis doubles or even trebles.

“Wycombe is a town, not a city, you’ll end up having 80 or more taxis circling the town like vultures looking for work which will bring the town to a standstill.

“They should carry out a survey to find out how many extra taxis the town needs or put a limit on the numbers of new drivers allowed otherwise there will be chaos.”

But WDC hit back by stating the district has a larger number of taxi ranks than ‘comparable authorities’, 40 in total, some of which are ‘not being used’ by drivers.

Prospective taxi drivers have taken away 50 applications for a licence but the council said only four had been returned so far.

The council also shrugged off suggestions the town would become gridlocked with an increased taxi presence.

WDC spokesperson Sue Robinson said: “It is unlikely that having more hackney cab taxi drivers would in itself bring our roads to a state of gridlock.

“Hackney cab drivers do not have to sit on a rank to pick up a fare because they can be hailed at any point and can also be pre-booked in the same way as a private hire vehicle.

“So not all will necessarily need to be completely focussed on on-street fares, meaning everything will be more flexible and fluid for our local taxi trade.

“Having conducted a comparative survey of taxi rank provision in many other districts, it seems WDC has a larger number of taxi rank places available and drivers are currently not using all of the ranks available within the district.

“Two years ago we offered hackney drivers the option of introducing hailing points around the district but this idea, which is still on the table, was rejected by the trade.”

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