Copy of Ian Shanks objection to Newcastle City Council:
Wether this objection is in favour of Hackney Carriages or Private Hire I don’t know but if Newcastle Hacks feel they are being unfairly treated maybe They should add weight to this objection. If on the other hand the Parking policy is aimed at Private Hire and/or Out of town plates that’s a different story.Personally I’m not a Town Hack but Town Hacks I know have intimated that this policy is a good thing. Either way it seems like it might be a good talking point! Admin
“Thank you for taking my call today in regards to my objection to the new parking control policy,
while you said nothing was new, and the council was only clarifying things since the original implementation of parking controls in 1963 because the City has changed dramatically, I fully understand and take that on board.
My issue is as a owner of Newcastle Hackney carriages, licensed by yourselves, where do we go and legally park while we are to conduct the job as there is often prolonged waits between hires !
It is you the City Council that have licensed us and therefore I believe it is you that is required to help the trade without putting us under threat of being prosecuted for illegally parking.
It is also unreasonable to ask the industry to keep the cars moving in some form of musical chairs looking for a spaces on a ranks as this in neither cost affective nor good for the environment.
I simply ask Newcastle City Council to consider helping the hackney carriages industry by coming up with some solution by means of some provision for legal parking or exception for hackneys or adequate rank spaces for the number of licensed issued by yourselves.”
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
Here we go again…….. IS you say:-
“My issue is as a owner of Newcastle Hackney carriages, licensed by yourselves, where do we go and legally park while we are to conduct the job as there is often prolonged waits between hires !”
Now please excuse me yet again if i sound thick or have missed the point, why the fek do you own Newcastle Hackney carriages, you are a Private Hire Operation, use Private Hire Vehicles. Here’s an idea, sell your Newcastle Hackney carriages (for hugely inflated prices) – your comments not mine- and take a 6 month holiday to timbuctoo with the procceds of the sale.
I will repeat my main point ….
USE PRIVATE HIRE VEHICLES AND LEAVE THE STREET/RANK WORK FOR THE HACKS !!!!
If you feel unable to do this stop trying to twist the laws to suit yourself.
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@Sam Harrington,
why should i not own Newcastle hackney carriages ?
is mixed fleets not allowed ??
in my view we carry people from A-B for reward and hire i don’t get myself on high horse that we are anything different or better than one another !
and why dont you sell you plate ? and turn 50k into 100K and be clever ?
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@ian shanks, you should not own Newcastle hackney carriages because you personaly have no intention of plying the ranks/streets of Newcastle for hire and reward.
Mixed fleets came about because people like you twist the laws.
I will ask again, why use hackney carriages instead of private hire vehicles ?
you seem very opinionated….. so heres my opinion, a Hackney Carriage should only be issued to someone who intends to operate as a Hackney Carriage.
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@Sam Harrington,
sam i take it your views are that hackneys are for one man operators only and no one should hire them out to another person ?
as early as i can remember and most likely before we had firms like tyne taxis Gordon nettleton running SLATERS taxis and many many more ! i drove taxis full time for 11 years from 17 to 28 until i had to do it part time for looking after a disabled mother and a business. it is now about 6 years since i last did a full shift. but where do i not qualify to own a hackney ?
if you became ill and were not able to work for a period of time should you be able to hire yours out while you recover and make a living from in the mean time ?
i think your so off the mark, so maybe we need to agree to disagree.
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@ian shanks,
totally agree with your second last paragraph.
Also I would add weight to your argument by saying that there will ALWAYS be those who choose to rent a car, even if newcastle deregulated tommorow, there would still be a minority who wish to rent.
Those who cant afford/get credit for a car.
And those who find the maintaining of the car too much of a headache.
so to restrict a hackney plate to someone who could only use it themself, would restricts the ‘renters’ of the trade.
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade@ian shanks, Yes i think we will have to agree to disagree, because you are still missing my point, one owner, one hack, and work the streets/ranks, who actually drives it is irrelevant, providing the driver is fully licensed etc.
Far too many hacks work offices, so they are not providing the service of a hackney carriage to the public. The word greed comes to mind, they want to work an office when the streets are quiet, then they will abandon the office when the streets are busy, it puzzles me why office owners allow this when customers are told on a busy saturday night “we have nothing available for at least an hour”
By the way Ian, this is not a dig at you, as i have stated before, i think Blue Line run a very good private hire operation, probably the best in the north east.
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage TradeIn response to Mr Shanks letter to the City council regarding the new parking controls.
I am a Newcastle hack and as so,I welcome Mr Shanks apparent support in as much as we are slowly loosing ranking spaces and whilst putting double yellow lines may reduce on street parking ,It does nothing to help the hackney carriage fleet find rank spaces.
Nearly every single driver,myself included will park illegally at some point during the course of the shift and it`s only the good will of the Police,who for the most part,turn a blind eye to it that we don`t all have a collection of parking tickets.
However,I can`t help but wonder if Mr Shanks apparent concern for `us Town hacks`,is in some small way influenced by his growing fleet of `Berwick` cars,along with his friends out of area cars,who are also having to park illegally and to paint the city with `double yellows` of course wouldnt help matters would it.
I`m not saying that I agree with or disagree with the council`s discission,merely that I`m a suspicious sod about this,since Mr Shanks is doing his best to wreck the cab trade in Newcastle and the council is not exactly helping matters in any shape or form.
And yes I am aware that Mr Shanks ,or rather the sadly missed MR.Shanks,dear old Colin,who at 1 time I had the pleasure of working with and for,had at least 2/3 plates in Newcastle.
What a pity Colin is not still with us.
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@john dodds,
well Mr Dodds what you may not realise and not believe is i have a passion for the trade not matter what side of the fence it may be and i have a dislike for the councils and their ways of dictatorial management like our old friend TOMMY LINTON !!
couple of issues arose about my talk with the council ! they were simply not interested and back heeled the issue to someone else in the hope you cant be bothered.as they have not interest in us even thou they take our monies.
the cars conducting themselves as private hire being private hire or hackneys doing private hire work were going to be allow to drop of and pick up (or so i was assured) but he could not assure me anything about the hackneys and prolonged waits that could not get a legal rank space
while you say you have the police being considerate what if one day the council send out their parking control squads with targets to hit ?
when the gentleman concern realised he was not talking me out of with drawing my complaint he became a little upset and then started to find ways of not accepting it by ways of saying i may be out of time with my complaint.
well a complaint is a compliant not matter when it is to my.
sorry you feel i want to destroy the trade as i don’t even if it feels that way but i do want to make a successful company and living,as i am sure someone else would, and if that were so they would not be considering me in their ladder of success. i think to a certain extent we all look after number one, but i do have a general regard to the hackney trade, as you should know its were i started
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@john dodds, best post i’ve seen on this site. out of towners are a f**king disgrace. and so are blokes with too many taxis like shanks.
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
This is intresting that new parking regulations are here did u know that? (i think not to sure some one corect me if i am wrong please) that double yellow lines must be painted with out breaks/faults on them it the line is not broken then it is a double yellow no arguement there but due to poor mantiance if the lines are not put there in a proper manor i.e worn/broken they are not double lines or is the case of single lines or what ever i think if u need double yellow lines are needed then the councils are responsible to make sure there are legal anrnt they ?? ian u know there are toomany taxis but there!! a person may order 2 taxi companys at the same time we know they do ! and 1 car gets a blank and we know i caught plenty of them but there is nothing we can do about it
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@mouse, There are postings all over the city about the new parking controls mouse!(lamposts)
You should read them cos they will be enforcing them in january when they have got nothing better to do
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
ok my laptop crashed before i finished i will respond again when i am fit to do so atfer a git of a shift but i stands that that i think a double yellow lines sould be clean and umbroken to say they are there r the legal
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@mouse,
you try fighting the parking control because you say it was wrongly issued as the line was broken and see how far you get and how much time and money it costs you over the fine !!!
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
Sorry if this has already been answered ……………. but is Newcastle Council going to be including in their policies questions about intended operation for their own Hackney’s.
And if so, will owners of Newcastle Hackney’s be honest in their responses.
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
let me tell you what happened a few weeks ago …
We were parked on the rank in the Bigg Market, around 5.00 pm. Officially this does not become a rank until 6.30 pm. A female bluehat traffic warden came along highbridge and asked us all to move. We explained we use this rank all of the time from around 1 pm onwards, and no one was wanting to deliver (toontakeaway dont open till 6, liquid is closed along with pumphreys and the george gets deliverys from the other side) and if a Dray comes for the Bee Hive we move if he cannot get round.
She wouldnt accept what we said, and told us to use the other 2 car taxi rank further up the market. Which we pointed out had a city works van, with the driver sitting in eating his bait talking to his mate. we were given 5 minutes to clear off. Now this lady was new but had done this for 3 weeks in a row, and had been TOLD if taxis are parked on ranks before the designated times to move them on or give them a ticket !!! How many ranks are full time? not many.
Now when she came back we were on the double yellows, which as a blue hat can do nowt about. Yet we asked her why doesnt she come back down here after 6.30 pm when it IS a rank, and ticket the up to 4 Vans plus a skip that were parked on the rank all night every night for 1 month as they were doing ladbrooks up. OR where was our notification that a skip would be taking up 1 rank space for 1 month. Her answers, we dont work nights (suprise there eh?) and I’ll look into the skip for you. Now we havnt seen her, or any others for a few weeks now,,,
but we dont hold our breath!
Dont kid yourselves, there will be NO exceptions for hackney or PH. It’s comming to a situation where by you will have to put 50p in a parking bay while you wait for your job! The council have taken on a further 20 parking enforcement officers, and there wages WILL be have to be paid!
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
This makes me laugh. Especially the comment from Ian shanks about dictator like management. You would know all about that. And that’s me talking from experience. I think the top and bottom of all of this is that we can all disagree with councils about by laws and differences in councils but after all they are the authority not us. I’m sure that by throwing your money around takingpeop
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
Continued: people to court Willy nilly really. Doesn’t help. Surely it would help the trade you care so much about by making the trade more productive across the board instead of trying to make laws suit your pockets. After all the economy of newcastle and north tyneside has surely suffered from your gain.
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
well short and sweet newcastle city council are a f***ing joke they come and inspect our cabs on a friday/saturday put us off the road for a headlight buld while blueslime hack the streets willy nilly? its f***ed lads?
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
@Sam Harrington,Regarding paragraph two sam! I dont know if you are a hack,ph or both?
There is one thing that gets my goat but,and that is independent hacks who sit on a rank complaining about the amount of cars on the rank and then hope that an office car gets a radio job which takes him away and shortens the queue,leaving the independent hack a shorter waiting time,but at the same time says there should be no radios in hacks!(not directed at you personally)
None of us welcomed the issueing of extra plates but at least the radio lads keep pulling of the rank which keeps things moving for the independents!
Can you imagine what would happen if we went back to the bale of hay times and we all stayed as independents!!!!and waited and waited and waited for 2 jobs a night!
Also sam,i am a mixed driver so i would love to hear of your definations of a greedy driver as i work about 45 hours per week(what about you!)
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade
Just to add sam,i go to work expecting to work and not stand around yakking and supping coffee
The views expressed in this site do not necessarily reflect the views of TooManyTaxis or the general U.K. Hackney Carriage Trade