IN THE NEWS


PREMIER CARS, LLANDUDNO, BANS MAYOR AFTER THREATENING PHONE CALL AND NEGATIVE POST


Premier Cars, Llandudno has banned local Mayor, Cllr Greg Robbins, following a threatening phone call and unfair negative social media post and has also lodged a complaint with licensing. Owner of the firm, Chris O’Neal, told PHTM: “Cllr Robbins booked a taxi at 5pm on Sunday 23 July to be collected at 5.45pm from the Cross Keys pub in town. “Unfortunately due to extreme weather conditions and major traffic issues at the Parc Eirias site, we were running behind on scheduled bookings. Therefore the controller called Cllr Robbins to explain the situation and inform him we were running 20 minutes behind schedule. “Cllr Robbins comments were not nice and he hung up. He then called our office a few minutes later saying: ‘I will report you to licensing for your inability to work’ and once again hung up, leaving the dispatcher no time to respond. “Our dispatcher then called Cllr Robbins back


to explain the


circumstances and once again offer an apology to which he responded: ‘Believe me I’ll make sure social media know how incompetent you are.’ “Shortly after Cllr Robbins posted this on his Facebook page: ‘I have used Interlink Taxis for many years. Obviously after their merger with Alliance I have continued to use this local company which employs local people. Tonight for the first time ever, I have placed a booking from Premier Taxis as Interlink/ Alliance were not answering the phone due to bookings in relation


PHTM AUGUST 2023 because we fell short of his


to the concert in Eirias Park. ‘I booked Premier 45 minutes in advance, which they confirmed. 5 mins after the taxi should’ve arrived they phoned me to say it would be another 20 minutes’. “Based on this post which received many views, and also other comments, we believe that Cllr Robbins’ actions have had a negative effect on our business which is based here in Llandudno and employs the majority of our staff from the county of Conwy with a high percentage of them fluent Welsh/English speakers. “Within the area since our arrival there has been some hostility with other taxi operators and Cllr Robbins clearly defines that he is a loyal customer to one of the other operators, (Alliance/Interlink). I’m somewhat taken back by


his


statement: ‘Interlink/Alliance were not answering the phone due to many bookings coming in relation to the concert in Eirias Park’. how would Cllr Robbins know this fact if the calls were unanswered? “In my opinion Cllr Robbins has used his Facebook site, which clearly identifies him as the Mayor/Councillor, his profile picture shows him in council robes, to negatively impact our business


expectations and due to his con- nection to Interlink/Alliance Taxis. “Whilst we don’t disagree that our service was not of the expected standard, the actual main issue was because of the traffic management at Eirias Park over which I believe Conwy Council has overriding authority due to the events being licensed; the safety advisory group should have


had better


management of the road network. “Local authorities up and down the country constantly advertise: “We will not tolerate negative/abusive conduct towards our staff” and we take the same stance. Cllr Robbins’ conduct was not acceptable; the call operator, unknown to him, is a young lady who is 34 weeks pregnant and didn’t need the extra stress caused by Cllr Robbins. “As a result of the calls and the Facebook post, which we define as negative and threatening, we have made a formal complaint to Llandudno Town Council and I will report this to the Ombudsman. Cllr Robbins is also banned from using any services we provide and we will be sending him notification to this effect. This is not the type of customer we want.” Cllr Robbins said: “I was tired and emotional as it was the anniversary of my father’s death. It was an over- reaction and I quickly realised and took the Facebook post down. It was purely a personal matter, I did not mention my role at any point and my Facebook page is not connected to the council and the views on there are my personal views. I have tried to contact the owner to explain and apologise.”


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