YCMIU Part 54879452

Taxi drivers in Castle Point could be given mandatory training about child sexual exploitation as part of an awareness campaign.

They could bring in cabbies from Rotherham, Oldham and Oxford to do it!

It wants to avoid the borough becoming subject to major incidents such as those reported in Rotherham and Oxford.

Oh. OK. Maybe not...

A report compiled by council officer Melanie Harris will be discussed by Castle Point Council’s cabinet meeting on Wednesday. One policy proposed is providing a handbook and free training to taxi drivers, which would be a requirement for anyone seeking paid work in the borough.

A handbook? What languages are they going to print it in?

“Awareness raising will be targeted at people working in taxi companies, licensed premises, restaurants and fast food outlets.”

Fast food outlets, eh? That must be such a comfort to Charlene Downes' relatives...

But that part of Essex doesn't have the ... ummm .... demographic match of those other areas, does it?

At a meeting in December, councillors identified Thorney Bay caravan park, off Thorney Bay Road, Canvey, as a site where urgent action was needed to protect vulnerable children.

Simon Hart, of the Essex Safeguarding Children Board, told members youths living on the park were at risk of alcohol and substance abuse.

Ah. Of course. It has another demographic known for this sort of thing.