Taxi rank location

A NEW plea has been made by Louth's taxi drivers for their rank to be relocated from its current site in the Market Place.
In a report, they say the existing rank is dangerous because it creates two blind spots.

Their document continues: "The first is behind us as traffic merges into Eastgate off Queen Street, while the second is the bend where traffic enters Eastgate from Merecer Row.

"Taxi driver are having to watch other vehicles turn in to the traffic flow with a passenger sat in the front seat."

At a town council meeting, Coun John Gains, himself a taxi driver, said the present sites also posed dangers when loading wheelchairs and assisting elderly or disabled passengers.

He said the preferred safer alternative site for a rank would be along a stretch of Mercer Row outside Spencers.

Coun Gains went on to call for restrictions on goods vehicles which he claimed are sometimes parked thoughtlessly, thereby causing traffic gridlock.

Coun Margaret Ottaway said some of the language used in confrontations between different classes of drivers was 'appalling'.

She added: "All road users have to live together."

The matter of relocating the taxi rank would be for Lincolnshire Highways to determine in consultation with the town council and other interested parties.

http://www.louthleader.co.uk/news/Louth-cabbies-in-call-for.4026860.jp