BRICKS AND STONES...
BASINGSTOKE TAXI DRIVER QUITS HIS JOB AFTER PASSENGERS SMASH UP HIS CAB
A Basingstoke cab- bie has quit his job of 23 years after a pair of passengers turned violent and destroyed his car, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage. The hackney car- riage driver said his ‘taxi career is over’ and has resigned after he was at- tacked by two cus- tomers on the night of 15 February. He picked the two males up from Bas- ingstoke Station and took them to New Road, Tadley but the pair refused to pay for their £22.50 journey. The father-of-three, who wishes to re- main anonymous, told the Gazette that once he asked for the payment, the pair kicked out the back window and smashed the passen- ger window as well as the protective guard between the front and back seat. He said: “As I was pulling away, one of them through a huge rock through the window, that missed me by inch- es. If I hadn’t driven away when I did I probably wouldn’t be talking to you today.” “They caused at least £3,000 worth of damage to the car and that’s only if it doesn’t get writ- ten off. As a self employed driver, I just can’t afford to keep it going any more.”
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The victim said he was left feeling scared and vulnera- ble after the attack adding that he now fears for his safety. He added that he was ‘utterly shock- ed’ by the lack of support from the police, spending more than 40 min- utes on hold to 101 after the attack only to be told to ‘go home’. “They just told me to drive home be- cause I wasn’t in- jured” he said “So I did, I had to travel home with water leaking into my car and shards of glass blowing in my face. “It’s just not safe any more.” Following on from the horrific attack PHTM spoke at length with Mr Mick Gilluley who is the chair of Basingstoke Taxi Driver Associa- tion (BTDA) to get an update. The attack took place in Tadley, which is seven miles from the taxi rank, a hotspot for issues for reasons we can- not publish here. The victim, and let’s not beat around the bush here, this driver is a victim, is not will- ing to have his picture posted for fear of being “far too easy to trace”; even releasing his name would be a risk since the local authority has an online register which is accessible to all, and gives details of owners which then makes it
easy to be tracked down and subjected to more abuse. He has a young family, and protection MUST come before publici- ty (couldn’t agree more.) This incident was reported to the police and has been followed up on a daily basis by both Mick and the victim in attempts to get an update, but sadly, to date no contact had been made at all by the police. With the greatest of respect to the local authority here, mem- bers of the licensing team, and indeed the leader of the council, have attend- ed the taxi rank offering support and leaving contact det- ails, which to quote Mick, has never been known before, but it does seem a little “too little too late”, with much talk, and very little action. The victim is quite adamant at this moment that he cannot see himself returning to his duties, a role he thoroughly enjoyed, and a service which was very much val-
ued by the local community in gen- eral; this isn’t just based on this one incident, as horrific as it is, but also on the fact that he had gone out and pur- chased a brand new TX4 to continue in the job he loved, only to have it stolen five years ago whilst still paying finance on it. On that occa- sion also, the res- ponse from the police was “nothing we can do, here is a crime reference number for you to claim off your insur- ance.” Then as we have all seen hap- pen numerous times, this trebled insur- ance, whilst still paying the finance on a vehicle he no longer had, which meant he could only rent a vehicle now, as opposed to own-
ing one, increasing costs even further. It is worth noting that drivers in the area have been ask- ing for council support and funding for the installation of CCTV for driver and passenger pro- tection for over seven years, funding which can be applied for from such pots as IPCC, community safety partnerships, street safe schemes and many others on the basis of public safe- ty and protection, but no support has been shown yet. The lack of CCTV is even more highlight- ed by the simple fact that there is absolutely no CCTV coverage within a 50-yard radius of the taxi rank, which means there is no protection or deter-
rent of any sort, which begs the question: what hap- pened to public safety here? This is far from being an isolated incident, in fact there are re- ports every single day of drivers being attacked, abused and robbed. Far more needs to be done to create a safe environment for the drivers here, all of whom put them- selves at extremely high risk every day of their lives, just to make sure that the public can get around safely. Surely drivers should have some level of pro- tection. At the very least, when things do go wrong, like here, better support and harsher sentences simply MUST be handed out.
HUDDERSFIELD TAXI HIT WITH ROCK ‘THE SIZE OF A BASEBALL’
Police are appealing for witnesses after a taxi had its window smashed by a youth hurling rocks at moving traffic. The Huddersfield Examiner reports that the mini- bus was travelling towards Hudders- field on New Hey Road, Salendine Nook, when the vehicle was struck, smashing its side window and leaving glass strewn across the road.
Traffic was halted following the inci- dent, on a recent Thursday evening at 8.30pm, as motor- ists came to help the badly shaken taxi driver as he sur- veyed the damage to his vehicle. Luckily no passen- gers were on board at the time of the attack. Motorist Jason Bat- tye was travelling in front of the taxi and narrowly avoided being hit. He said:
“He had his hood pulled up and a dust mask on. It looked like a targeted at- tempt at vandalism. “The throw went some distance ac- ross a full lane. I saw the rock that he threw, it was the size of a baseball.” West Yorkshire Police have con- firmed they were searching for a man wearing a dark blue parka coat with a fur hood and a white dust mask.
MARCH 2020
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