Chorley businesses are working together on a new project to support the borough’s homeless - which will see taxi drivers deliver takeaways to the needy.
The Lancashire Post reports that Helping Hands is the idea of Shaz Malik from the Chorley Taxi Association (CTA), and is a collaboration with Chorley United Reformed Church open kitchens, led by Brenda Lambert, which has been preparing and serving food for the needy every Thursday since 2012.
Shaz met Brenda seven years ago when he first donated food, and recently decided to extend the support, with the backing of CTA directors Rashid Sohail, Mohmed Esa and managers Amy Hodkinson and Abdul Javeed.
As a team they have encouraged several local businesses to join the Helping Hands initiartive, including Texas Steak House in Bolton Road.
Owner Saqib Mohammed has offered a 70 per cent discount on food to support CTA Helping Hands.
He said: “When Shaz presented the Helping Hands plans, I immediately became interested. Even though times are tough for everyone, it is important that we still make an effort to help and support others.
"I am happy to be involved with Chorley and contribute to the local community.”
Owner of Cream Curls dessert parlor in Eaves Lane, Samir Asif and manager Salika Asif, have offered an 80 per cent discount on a range of desserts for Brenda’s kitchen.
Salika already helps and supports children with autism by hiring out Cream Curls for small parties.
Salika said she was “eager” to participate, adding: “Personally, I find great joy in helping others, and the ability to impact someone else’s life in a meaningful way is truly rewarding.”
William Foran, owner of Foran and Blake hairdessers is offering a 66 per cent discount to the needy referred by Brenda, and at no expense, Martin Downer from Spiral Graphics has supplied the Helping Hand stickers.
Brenda’s team will use their budget to order discounted meals from the shops on board, and they will be delivered at no charge by members of the CTA to the church on a Thursday.
The CTA is also covering the percentage cost difference to small local businesses from their membership fees. No referrals are needed for the open kitchen.
Shaz Malik, founder of the CTA said he was keen to be able to offer homeless people the same food he would eat “rather than the cheapest options”.
He said: “We are more than just a ride in our community. It is crucial for individuals to recognise and endorse these establishments and opt for CTA approved taxis for their travel needs, as they are the ones making this vision a reality in Chorley.
“Also, equally, please support our local business who are supporting homeless project, before you go to McDonalds or places like Subway, please support our local business who are supporting our cause.
"With everything happening globally, it makes sense to consider supporting our local community and uniting various groups to focus on positive actions.
"Let’s start by bringing people together in our hometown and working towards a common goal of making a difference.”
The safety of taxis in the Settle and Skipton areas was in the spotlight as part of a joint operation.
North Yorkshire Police roads policing officers worked alongside North Yorkshire Council's taxi licensing enforcement staff.
They focused in particular on drivers and vehicles operating on school contracts in the Settle area, stopping seven taxis carrying youngsters on the ‘school run’, on the morning of Tuesday 30 April 2024.
A number of issues were identified, including drivers not wearing photo identification, missing internal taxi licence identification, and headlights in an unsatisfactory condition.
As a result, four drivers will be issued with warning letters by North Yorkshire Council, and some vehicles will be re-inspected in the future.
A further driver was reported for summons by North Yorkshire Police for not wearing a seatbelt correctly.
The team also stopped and checked taxis in the Cross Hills and Skipton area on the same day.
Although five were found to be wholly in order, some further issues were identified with other taxis stopped, including wing mirrors in poor condition, and worn tyres.
Further inspections, and several warning letters, will follow.
North Yorkshire Council's corporate director of environment, Karl Battersby, said: "Our role as a local authority is to provide assurance to customers that taxis in the North Yorkshire area meet the requirements of the law and our agreed standards.
"This is especially significant where children are involved hence our close partnership with North Yorkshire Police."
Traffic Constable David Minto, of North Yorkshire Police, said: “The initial focus of our operation was in the Settle area, and specifically during the time of the morning ‘school run’, where safety is of course paramount.
“Partnership working is critical to the success of these operations, to ensure safer roads, roadworthy vehicles and authorised drivers in North Yorkshire.”
Two women racially abused a taxi driver during a late-night journey across Carlisle after he told them they should not eat and drink in his cab.
The News & Star reports that the driver collected 25-year-old Shanie Phillipson and the second woman on the evening of August 25 last year and immediately told them they were not allowed into the cab with the cans of beer and lager they had.
The man also then told them not to eat in the cab as Phillipson began tucking into a packet of crisps, magistrates heard. As the journey got underway, the women began verbally abusing the driver.
Phillipson sat behind the driver and made comments suggesting he was a paedophile. When she began eating crisps, and he asked to not do that, she responded by saying she was allowed to eat whatever she wanted “in my own country.”
The man was also subjected to homophobic abuse.
Though the prosecution accepted that the second woman involved, who has not been identified, was the main protagonist in the abuse, Phillipson had joined in and the two women had both used the same kind of abusive language.
Prosecutor Graeme Tindall told the city’s Rickergate court: “It has caused the taxi driver considerable upset. He said he has been in this country for nine years and only suffered racism on two occasions. This was one of them.
“He did not argue because they were abusing him, and he didn’t want to get into an argument with them.”
He felt he needed to concentrate on his driving.
After the journey, aware that they were filming the encounter, the victim feared the women would post some of the encounter on Facebook.
In a statement, he said: “It made me feel extremely stressed; I dreaded going to work and feared that they hadn’t gone away.”
In the weeks after the incident, the driver’s wife had struggled to sleep because she was worried about her husband while he was at work.
Phillipson admitted using racially aggravated threatening and abusive words and behaviour.
Steven Marsh, defending, said: “She accepts she was intoxicated,” said the lawyer.
“She has no recollection of the actual incident.”
It was the second woman passenger who had told the driver she would get her boyfriend to smash the driver’s face in, said Mr Marsh.
At that point, said the lawyer, Phillipson had gestured to the other woman to get her to stop.
The other woman was not somebody Phillipson even knew, said Mr Marsh, and that second woman had not been caught.
The presiding magistrate told the defendant: “It’s not the first time you have been in court for not being able to keep a lid on it.”
The magistrates imposed a 12-month community order which includes 15 rehabilitation activity days.
Phillipson must also observe 80 days of electronically monitored alcohol abstinence and pay £200 compensation to the victim, as well as a £114 victim surcharge.
Source: https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/24304300.court-sentences-carlisle-woman-racial-abuse-taxi-driver/
A cabbie was suspended and others received warnings following checks in Leamington and Warwick.
According to the Leamington Observer, Warwickshire Police stopped and checked 40 taxi and private hire drivers during a joint operation with City of Wolverhampton Council’s taxi compliance officers.
Checks were carried out to ensure both the drivers and their vehicles were appropriately licensed and had the correct documentation.
Officers with vehicle inspection and prohibition powers also checked the roadworthiness and overall safety of vehicles.
Of the 40 cars, one driver was suspended by the licensing authority as well as being prosecuted for two bald tyres.
A further seven drivers received formal warnings on their licence records for infringements and four more were given advice as their tyres were less than 1mm from the legal limit.
Sgt Simon Dalby, who led the operation, said: “We were pleased to see that the majority of taxi drivers we checked during the operation had carried out their vehicle checks and the vehicles were safe to be on the road.
“Checking drivers are using a safe, approved vehicle when carrying members of the public and following all laws and regulations will undoubtedly help improve road safety, and reduce the risk of collisions.
“Checking the taxi driver documentation also helps reduce the risk to vulnerable people who may fall prey to unlicensed drivers in the night time economy.
“Due to the success of the operation, we will be doing it again soon to cover all our towns across the county.”
John Roseblade, director of resident services at City of Wolverhampton Council said: “City of Wolverhampton Council takes its licensing responsibilities seriously and our officers work proactively across the country, carrying out regular operations with partners to protect the public.
“We will continue to support Warwickshire Police to carry out further random checks on taxis over the coming months to ensure both the driver and vehicle meet the requirements to carry members of the public.”
Source: https://leamingtonobserver.co.uk/news/taxi-driver-suspended-following-spot-checks/
Edinburgh black cab drivers have criticised the council after being asked to pay to have planters on The Royal Mile moved for their annual outing for vulnerable children.
For more than 75 years the capital’s taxi drivers have treated local youngsters with special needs, life-limiting conditions and terminal illnesses to a fun day out parading through the city in their brightly decorated cars.
But after seeking to return to the route taken by the much-loved Edinburgh Taxi Outing before the pandemic – at which point planters were used to block traffic from the High Street under the Spaces for People scheme – they were told temporarily removing the blockade would come at a cost.
According to the Edinburgh Reporter, organisers have said they remain hopeful the issue is just one of “miscommunication” and that any fee would be waived by the council for the long-running event.
After submitting plans to go along Princes Street, up the Mound and down The Royal Mile for the first time since 2019 organisers were quoted a figure understood to be around £1,500 to have the planters moved.
In a letter seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service the council said during events such as the long-running Taxi Outing its staff were “not required on site” and therefore there were “no resources available to move or return the planters”.
It said: “If an organiser wishes to use a route which requires the planters moved or returned then the costs for the work would be at the expense of that organiser.”
A council spokesperson said the drivers would be free to shift the large boxes themselves or alternatively alter their route by turning down Cockburn Street.
Taxi Outing secretary Keith Bell said it isn’t “physically feasible for us to do that”.
He said: “I’m not sure why they can’t just send a man in a flatbed with a tail lift, drop the tail lift, or a pallet truck, and move the planters.
“What happens if the public see Joe Bloggs moving the planters? You really need to have a council lorry there with council staff moving it, because if I can just shift them what’s to stop anyone else shifting them? It’s on a hill as well, it’s not like we can do that – we’re taxi drivers.”
He added: “I think the figure quoted was probably for a commercial event, which is fair enough – if people are making a profit from the city it’s only fair the council recoup their cost and I would never have a problem with that – it’s just we’ve been going for over 75 years.”
The Association of Hackney Carriage Drivers of the City of Edinburgh said: “Despite the commendable efforts of the city’s taxi drivers to uplift the spirits of vulnerable children, bureaucratic hurdles erected by the council threaten to undermine their altruistic endeavours.
“The refusal to accommodate these compassionate acts speaks volumes about the council’s misplaced priorities.”
Mr Bell said he was “sure it’s just a misunderstanding” and “when the officials realise it’s for the Outing and we’ve been doing it for 75 years the matter will be resolved quite amicably”.
He said: “I suspect what’s happened is the email has come in – because the council is more like a sort of call centre where they just have generic staff answering the phone, doing the post – and the person probably wasn’t aware of what the taxi outing was, so they’ve just given the generic answer.
“I know sometimes how bureaucracy can get in the way and what you would think would be a simple solution sometimes turns into a nightmare.
“I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding and when the officials realise it’s for the outing and we’ve been doing it for 75 years I think the matter will be resolved quite amicably.”
The Edinburgh Taxi Outing is set to take place this year on Tuesday, 11 June.
Source: https://theedinburghreporter.co.uk/2024/05/cab-drivers-may-have-to-pay-to-move-planters-for-outing/
Chorley businesses are working together on a new project to support the borough’s homeless - which will see taxi drivers deliver takeaways to the needy.
North Yorkshire Police roads policing officers worked alongside North Yorkshire Council's taxi licensing enforcement staff.
Two women racially abused a taxi driver during a late-night journey across Carlisle after he told them they should not eat and drink in his cab.
Warwickshire Police stopped and checked 40 taxi drivers during a joint operation with City of Wolverhampton Council’s taxi compliance officers.
Edinburgh black cab drivers have criticised the council after being asked to pay to have planters on The Royal Mile moved for their annual outing for vulnerable children.
A total of 19 taxis have been stopped in and around Cambridge in a crackdown on vehicle safety and parking on double yellow lines.
London cabbie Farid Cheheb, 60, fatally injured Irish barman Shane Scannell, 44, who died in hospital four days later surrounded by his devastated family.
Sam Bradley’s actions left the victim with a broken leg and broken ankle, said Sarah Tyrer, prosecuting.
New data has confirmed the city as the country's private hire vehicle capital - with a licensing rate a staggering 500 per cent higher than the second-placed location.
The repetitive action of pressing the car accelerator pedal activates certain neural pathways that promote relaxation and reduce stress levels.