Wednesday, 21 September 2011

"...I needed one more fare to make my night, a lady up ahead waved to flag me down..."

A new taxi rank could be set up in Southend High Street.

Council chiefs are considering creating a pick-up point for cabs in the loop of road which links Clarence Street and Weston Road.
Sound like a good idea. who could possibly object to...

Oh:
However, the idea has been met with outrage by the council’s Tory deputy leader, John Lamb.

He said: “We have deliberately pedestrianised the High Street to make it a safe place for people to go with their families.”
Maybe he has a point? I mean, it's be a shame to dig up all that vast pedestrianised area to...

Oh. Wait. I know the bit he means. And so does GoogleMaps:


Yes, indeed. There's already a road there.

Putting a taxi rank in might inconvenience Southend Police, who it seems are always parked outside M&S, but not anyone else. Certainly not shoppers, who are well aware that this lower part of the High Street is definitely NOT 'pedestrianised'.
“I can see the point of having it at night, when the taxis would be able to quickly take away the people coming out of the pubs and clubs.

“But during the day, it should not happen. It’s an issue of safety.”
And we all know how Southend Council feels about road safety...

But 'safety' is what they always reach for, isn't it? He'd have been on much safer ground if he'd pointed out that there's a taxi rank within a stone's throw of this road (down the side of BHS, just to the right of that GoogleMap image) and so no need for a new one.
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3 comments:

  1. James Higham21 September 2011 at 11:57

    But 'safety' is what they always reach for, isn't it?

    Or the children.

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  2. JuliaM22 September 2011 at 05:32

    Oh, I expect that'll be next. But then Southend Council is getting remarkably blasé about 'the chiiillldreeen' when it happens to point up their own stupidity.

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  3. Anonymous22 September 2011 at 14:02

    Is the insinuation the police are parking there in order to go shopping?

    I get that occasionally from ignorant members of the public when i park up near shops in our town, but it is too attend to reports of crimes in the town.

    I recall being parked up attending to a lady who was pregnant and had taken ill. A passer-by started berating me saying that if he had parked up there he would have had a ticket.

    I wonder if M&S went up in flames you would be moaning about fire engines being parked there.

    ReplyDelete