Chesterfield taxi drivers protest
Taxi drivers protested in front of the Chesterfield Town Hall before attending a meeting with Chesterfield Borough Council.
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00:00My name's Debbie and I'm owner of Central Cars Taxis in Chesterfield.
00:05The reason we're all here today is the impact that Wolverhampton drivers are having on our taxi industry.
00:13From the earning possibilities and also safety issues.
00:20My name's Asim, I work in Chesterfield, I'm a Hackney driver.
00:24The issues we have is, especially working on a Friday, Saturday night, as you know it's the busiest time of the week.
00:30When we're working, you've got Wolverhampton drivers, out of town drivers, parking in the ranks, parking, blocking our spaces and we can't pick up customers.
00:39So that's a really big issue, so this is why we came to council today, to talk about our views and everything that we need to address.
00:48My name's Nisar Suleiman, I'm one of the private hire drivers here.
00:52The reason we've come here today is to do a little protest meeting with the council, to tell them our views and points about the Wolverhampton drivers that are coming here and taking our work away.
01:02So we're here just to show our appreciation and things like that, so thank you.
01:09My name's Omar Rafiq, private hire and Hackney.
01:14I've been in the trade over 20 years now more or less, just regarding mainly Wolverhampton plates, out of town drivers.
01:23The rules and regulations that we have, they don't have at all and we think it's a danger for the public as well.
01:30No stickers, no plates sometimes, pick up from where they want, park where they want.
01:36It's affecting the trade as well, people coming from out of town.
01:39If they're licensed under the borough council it shouldn't be a problem.
01:41People travel to work, that's no problem, but they're travelling in our town on different rules and regulations.
01:47It just doesn't seem fair, doesn't seem safe, doesn't make sense at all to be honest with you.
01:51So I'd just like to raise that to you.
01:53Does it have an impact on yourself financially?
01:56Yeah definitely, definitely.
01:58I was just speaking earlier, 51,000, last we read was 41,000 plates.
02:03Somebody said that's 16 cars per street in Wolverhampton.
02:08So they're not going to work in there at all.
02:14You can imagine all those cars coming from out of town and taking our work, so yeah.
02:19I've heard like Wigan council, the other councils, they've actually gone through and been accepted.
02:25I can't just vote for a council and do the same then for us.