IN THE NEWS
MANCHESTER PROBE INTO RIP-OFF STONE ROSES TAXIS
Licensing officers are investigating claims that ‘rip-off’ taxi driv- ers charged Stone Roses fans up to £10 a mile after the Heaton Park shows in July. Fans have complained that they had to pay as much as £40 to travel the four miles back into the city. One unhappy passen- ger said they were quoted £80 for a jour- ney to Stockport. Around a dozen pri- vate hire vehicles were also suspected of ille- gally plying for hire. More than 250,000 people descended on the park over that weekend. The
Manchester
Evening News was inundated with com- plaints from fans who were left with no
option but to pay over the odds. Vicky James paid £50 to get back to Bury after finding no trams and being unable to hail down a black cab. She added: “I intend to write a letter of com- plaint.” MEN reporter Dianne Bourne was also caught out after strug- gling to hail a cab at 1.30am following the Friday gig. She said: “We had already walked about a mile down Bury New Road and tried to flag a taxi down. “Eventually a private hire car turned round and offered to take us into the city for a flat fee of £30 cash. “At this stage, after 40 minutes of trying, we decided to pay.”
Cllr Nigel Murphy told the MEN: “Our licens- ing officers were out on Middleton Road and adjoining streets, making sure private hire drivers had booked jobs and were not illegally picking up passengers, as well as advising passengers about how much they should be paying to get home. “We spoke to hun- dreds of taxi drivers last weekend and will be investigating sever- al cases over the next few weeks. “I’d also urge anyone who thinks they were charged too much after getting into a taxi in Manchester to contact our licensing depart- ment on 0161 234 5004 with the vehicle’s regis- tration number.”
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NEIGHBOURS COMPLAIN OVER ANTI-SOCIAL GLASGOW PARROT
A parrot which used to live in a taxi firm office has left neighbours spitting feathers by squawking out cab booking details. According to Glasgow News, residents in a street in the Govan area of Glasgow called police to complain about
anti-social
behaviour from the bird. Officers visited the owner in his Uist Street home on a recent Tuesday to dis- cuss the problem and found the parrot on its perch chirping “Taxi for Govan Road.” A local officer tweet- ing for Strathclyde Po- lice’s Govan Twitter account wrote: “Noise complaint report, cul- prit turned out to be a parrot that used to live in a taxi office, shouting things like
Parrot banter: Neighbours called in police over a noisy bird.© Deadline
‘Taxi for Govan Road!’ “I’m glad to say that it’s no wind up, you see all sorts of things in this line of work. My favourite call this week though.” A spokeswoman for Strathclyde Police added: “Police were responding to com- plaints about a noise within a property in the Uist Street area of
Govan. Police carried out enquiries and it quickly
apparent that
became the
source of the noise was a parrot. “Officers have con- cluded their enquiries. They spoke to the householder - but not the parrot - and have decided that no fur- ther action is being taken.”
BOLTON ACTRESS’S DEATH BLAMED ON DIRTY TAXI WINDSCREEN
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PAGE 50
A popular amateur theatre actress was killed when a taxi driv- er hit her because he could not see through the dirty windscreen of his car, a court heard. Barbara Holt was delivering a card to a friend’s house on a snowy Christmas Eve in 2010 when Waqar Ahmed’s Toyota Aven- sis hit her, crushing her legs. She died a short time later. According to the Bolton News, Ahmed, 34, from Heaton, was last month given a six- month
suspended
prison sentence after pleading guilty to causing death by care- less driving in an earlier hearing at Bolton Crown Court. There were no wit- nesses
to accident, but it
the is
thought that Mrs Holt was walking towards
the back of her car from the driver’s door when she was struck by the taxi. Mr Barr said Ahmed failed to see Mrs Holt in time. “This was probably due to the sun being extremely bright and very low in the sky. The windscreen had a thin layer of grime on it, restricting his vision through it,” said Mr Barr. He added that water
the in Ahmed’s
windscreen washer bottle had frozen. Mr Barr said there is no suggestion
that
Ahmed, a father of three,
had been
speeding. Mohammed Nawaz, defending,
Ahmed accepted he was at fault. “He is extremely remorseful and personally devas- tated for the grief he has caused to the fam- ily and friends of Mrs
said
Holt,” he added. The Honorary Re- corder of Bolton, Judge
Timothy
Clayson, sentenced Ahmed to six months in prison, suspended for 12 months, and ordered him to do 150 hours of unpaid work. He was also banned from driving for 12 months. He
added
that
Ahmed’s failure to keep his windscreen clear was a significant fault. “It is very impor- tant that all motorists ensure vision is as good as possible,” said Judge Clayson. “It doesn’t take long to make sure that is the case.” Mrs Holt, from Farn- worth, was a stalwart of Bolton’s amateur theatre
community
and was one of the founders of Bolton Amateur Theatre Soci- ety 24 years ago.
PHTM AUGUST 2012
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