You’d think it’s already hard enough making a living with all the red tape nowadays but cabbies in the Wiltshire town of Salisbury have hit a new blockage.
Rank space is limited in the town centre but it seems to be proving just too tempting for some local ‘blue badge’ holders. Disabled drivers, it seems, have taken to using their sticker as an excuse for parking just about anywhere – including blocking access to the taxi rank in New Canal. Cab drivers had no alternative but to queue back on to the street. And guess what? Yes, you got it – a civil enforcement officer issued a penalty notice to the cabbies!
Frustrated Nigel Crook, a cabbie of 16 years, told the Salisbury Journal: “In the multi-storey there’s a whole row on every floor reserved for disabled people.
“Why are people doing it when there are adequate disabled spaces provided in the car parks? A lot of people get out of their vehicles and go off shopping for two or three hours, if they can do that they can park in the multi-storey.”
Cabbies say they’re losing cash as punters turn away when they see no cabs on the rank. Despite raising their concerns, no resolution to the cabbies’ plight is in sight. Wiltshire Council has said that badge holders causing an obstruction is a police matter and their enforcement officers can’t do anything about it. The police, on the other hand, are busy with other matters and couldn’t spare anyone to attend at the time the matter was last brought to their attention.