News | Cycle route
Cabbies save rank as workmen move in
TAXI drivers have stopped their town centre cab rank being moved to make way for a cycle route – a move they say would have hit the disabled.
The cabbies secured the victory in just a few hours after a driver saw contractors moving in to start work overnight on September 3. By 11am the next morning,
when members of the local taxi drivers’ association met in King Street, Kent County Council had already decided to climb down. The idea for cycle routes was originated by Maidstone Borough Council, but is to be implemented by KCC. The cabbies say the King Street rank was to be moved to Church Street and that there would have been too few places for the 40-plus licenced cabs to wait. There are seven places feeding
two spots in the High Street, which drivers move into by watching a monitor near Boots. By moving around the corner, they would no longer be able to see the screen. Neil Cox (60), a married father of
two from Allington, pictured, said: “We were not consulted on this at all. The first thing we knew was when the contractors showed up. This was not thought through.” Currently, all taxis are wheelchair accessible on the pas- senger side, but in Church Street, that would have meant the dis- abled would have had to board the cabs in the middle of the road, as the rank would have been on the driver’s side, said Mr Cox, who is pictured at the King Street rank The drivers’ meeting was at- tended by local Tory borough
downsmail.co.uk Cycling forum
welcomes idea A PRO-CYCLING group has welcomed a £8m Government boost to the county to encourage people to get on their bikes, es- pecially now schools have gone back and a spike in car journeys is anticipated. Far fewer secondary students
are expected to use buses in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, says Maidstone Cycle Campaign Forum. Whilst school services will be
able to run at about 70% capacity, one transport boss said the “great unknown” is how many parents will choose to use a car instead. The cash will fund two schemes for the county town – the pedestrianisation of Earl Street between Pudding Lane and Week Street and to imple- ment two pop-up cycle lanes along each side of King Street. The King Street scheme will
councillor Jonathan Purle and Lib- eral Democrat colleague Ashleigh Kimmance, himself a taxi driver. Cllr Purle said: “There appears
to have been no consultation what- ever with the drivers, who are a powerful and vocal lobby. I’m the ward member and I wasn’t prop- erly consulted and now it appears that the drivers, who make their living here, weren’t either. “But the county council rapidly saw the flaw in the original plan and listened to the drivers.” Chris Webb, who lives at the Kings Lodge retirement complex in King Street, also complained there was no consultation. He said some of his neighbours,
who have mobility issues, can no longer be picked up or dropped off outside and new disability bays are dangerous. The installation work had caused “constant” tail- backs.
l MAIDSTONE Borough Coun- cil and Kent Council Council said: "MBC and KCC have worked together on this tem- porary scheme and have moved quickly, as instructed by central government, to meet the timescales outlined by the De- partment for Transport in order to make a safer and better en- vironment for cycling and walk- ing. “Following representations
from taxi drivers and an onsite meeting, a resolution has been reached; the short section be- tween Church Street and Wyke Manor Road has been removed from the scheme, but the re- maining section between Church Street and A249 is still progressing as planned.”
link a cycle route from town to Maidstone East railway station and the Medway towpath in one direction, and Mote Park and routes to Downswood and Bearsted in the other.
The forum says it will work with KCC and Maidstone Bor- ough Council to ensure the schemes are “examplars” of best practice. Forum spokesman Paul Harper said 60-70% of secondary stu- dents use buses, but claimed five to 10% will use the public trans- port, while around 90% will be driven, an increase of 20-30,000 peak-time journeys.
He claimed this could see car journeys across Maidstone in- crease by 20-30,000 twice a day, so urgent attention is needed to provide support for pupils to walk and cycle to school and col- lege.
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