...TERROR TIMES
WIGAN TOWN CENTRE TAXI DRIVERS ARE UNDER ATTACK: HERE’S WHAT THEY HAVE TO ENDURE
Taxi drivers are run- ning a shocking gauntlet of abuse from youths
in
Wigan town centre and may boycott the area if the prob- lems continue. Black cabs have been kicked, bricks have been thrown at windows and yobs have grabbed make- shift barriers to blockade
routes
while others lined up to hurl insults, furious industry rep- resentatives have
said. Wigan Council says a stream of reports of serious anti-social behaviour have been coming in and infor- mation has been reported to central watch and Greater Manchester Police (GMP), leading to at least one person being barred from the area to prevent them causing trou- ble. However, some hack- ney carriage opera- tors say that is not
enough and say the public might even have to do without black cabs in the middle of town if the barrage of incidents is not stopped. The worst-hit areas appear to be on Dorning Street and the roads around Wigan Parish Church leading back to the taxi rank on Wall- gate, with most of the problems occur- ring between 6pm and 9.30pm. Black cab driver
LEEDS CABBIE ATTACKED WITH BRICKS WHILE MUM AND BABY IN TAXI
A taxi driver whose car was bricked and smashed by a gang in Swarcliffe said that drivers are too scared to go into certain areas in Leeds because of antisocial teenagers. The Yorkshire Eve- ning Post reports that Zulfakar Hus- sain, 40, a taxi driver at Roadrunners Cars, was driving a moth- er and her two- year-old child to their home in Swar- cliffe when his car was bricked by a large group of teenagers. It happened on Swarcliffe Avenue on Thursday, March 21 and the stone only narrowly miss- ed the young wo- man and her child, instead smashing the side quarter glass window. After
MAY 2019
Eddie Earley told Wigan Today: “These young thugs are hanging around and drivers coming back into
the town
through the centre are getting attack- ed. That whole area should be on CCTV and yet this has been going for the last two weeks. It doesn’t
look like
enough is being done. “It’s getting to the point where we will have to make it a
no-go area for the taxis and then the public will suffer.” Wigan Council con- demned the anti- social behaviour but strongly denied it was not doing any- thing to combat the problems.
It said
action had already been taken and the town hall would continue using the CCTV surveillance set-up to pass evi- dence to the police. Mmmm… The coun- cil defends
its
current security/sur- veillance programme, but the attacks and vandalism continue. The yobs must be identified and pun- ished before some- body is injured. If on-street CCTV isn’t capturing images, the only other solu- tion is solid-state CCTV in the vehi- cle(s), with a for- ward-facing camera, which in many inci- dents elsewhere has clearly identified the criminals. – Ed.
GANG OF 30 ATTACK TERRIFIED HULL TAXI DRIVER’S CAR
Zulfakar Hussain says taxi drivers are afraid to go to some areas of Leeds
the attack, the
group of teenagers, aged between 12 and 15, fled from outside Swarcliffe Working Men’s Club where they had been standing, to neigh- bouring streets. Mr Hussain,
from
Bradford, said: “It was a big shock and I could have easily lost control of the car. The baby was
crying and the woman screamed.” involved. Mr Hussain said attacks like this on taxis and buses are becoming more com- mon and putting taxi drivers off from working in certain areas. He said: “I don’t know why they did what they did. It’s dangerous, people could die.”
An angry Hull taxi driver has vowed never to return to Orchard Park, a north Hull estate, after a youths hurled bricks at his car. HullLive reports that Steve Brown feared for his safety when a gang of around 30 kids, aged between 12 and 17 years old, “bricked” his taxi after he dropped off a passenger at 8pm on Monday 15 April. Mr Brown, a taxi driver for more than 30 years, says he has never experienced such an attack and was left frightened and intimidated. He said: “I was driv- ing slowly along Thorpepark Road as there’s a load of speed bumps there, when suddenly I heard a bang in the car and thought I’d
hit something. But then I saw a gang of kids, dressed in hoodies,
hurling
bricks at my car. “One of the bricks hit my door trim on the passenger side, but if it had been a couple of
inches
higher it would have smashed through the window. If I had a passenger in my car, who knows what would have gone on. “I drove off as quick- ly as I could, but the gang kept racing after me, throwing the bricks as I was moving away. “I pulled over and rang the police but I felt too scared to leave the car, so after five minutes of waiting around I had to leave as the gang came to where I was pulled up and start- ed throwing the
bricks again.” Mr Brown’s taxi is new and worth more than £10,000, and he was particularly angered at the dam- age the bricks caused. He is now refusing jobs in the area. Mr Brown is not the only taxi driver to have complained of the gang culture in Orchard Park in recent months. At the turn of the year, residents spoke of youths “ruling the roost”,
hanging
around shops, intim- idating neighbours and generally being a nuisance. Buses were forced to divert and fellow taxi drivers boy- cotted the north Hull estate after they were targeted and had their win- dows put through.
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