MEATH’S 220 taxis need ranks in towns outside Navan, including Ashbourne, Trim and Kells, a Navan taxi drivers’ spokesman said this week.

The call by Navan Taxi Drivers’ Association (NTDA) chairman, Donal Mulcahy, has obtained the support of Meath County Councillor Jim Holloway of Fine Gael.

Colr Holloway said that Kells, Trim, Ashbourne and Dunboyne were notable areas of expansion. In the interests of supporting tourism, business, leisure activities and the domestic market, provision of taxi ranks in these towns was vital.

He put down a notice of motion for a meeting of Meath County Council earlier this year seeking to designate new taxi rank areas. It was not just the need to serve the domestic market, but also the importance of road safety that were behind his move, Colr Holloway said.

Mr Mulcahy said Meath’s 220 taxis had to converge on Navan in the absence of ranks elsewhere in the county. In Navan, the number of ranks was inadequate for all the taxis. Some were in areas where the public did not converge, for example, behind Navan Town Hall.

He said that many of the taxi drivers working in Navan lived in areas such as Trim, Ashbourne and Kells but had to commute to Navan to try to make their living.

The solution, he believed, was to have designated ranks in Trim, Kells, Athboy, Ashbourne and Dunboyne.

One of the benefits of this move would be to disperse crowds of people congregating after discos. In turn, this would reduce the risk of public order breaches, Mr Mulcahy added.

He said he was concerned that Trim Town Council this year discussed the suggestion that taxi ranks would be provided in the town but did not go ahead with the initiative. It appeared they were happy that the service provided by local hackney providers was sufficient.

Colr Holloway said he was pleased that county councillors broadly supported his motion. To his mind, he said it was an obligation for councillors in the Dunshaughlin Electoral Area to begin the process. The same held true for the town councils of Trim and Kells, he said.

Trim, for example, was a tourism area, he added. A tourist in the town who had played golf on one of its fine courses or spent the day enjoying its rich heritage was likely to end up in the centre of the town later. If that tourist wanted a taxi, he or she would find, to their dismay, that a

taxi rank did not exist.

Colr Holloway believed it was urgent that this matter was taken up and progressed. Members at the county council meeting in February had agreed that the issue should be discussed by each electoral area council and town council, excluding Navan, to consider requirements and engage in discussions and consultations about designating ranks in each area.

Fianna Fail county councillor Seamus Murray (Trim electoral area) said he agreed that discussions at area council and consultations should go ahead.

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