Double Yellow Lines

[Aylestone Voice]

It's wet outside so I thought I would start a new topic!

Does anyone ever pay a ticket for parking on double yellow lines in the city?

I would have thought that good a defence would be - I will pay when you start enforcing the double yellow lines in Bewell Street which are always clogged up with taxis. Every day that road is blocked and nothing is done. Surely this is more dangerous given the need for emergency vehicle access on a narrow road than parking on double yellow lines in Commercial Road.

But is there one law for us and another for taxis?

[Ubique]

I emailed the Council last October re Bewell St - double yellow lines and taxies , below was his reply

 

On 28 Oct 2013, at 08:50, "Hepworth, David" <dhepworth@herefordshire.gov.uk> wrote:

 

Dear Ubique

 

Thank you for your enquiry.

 

This is an area of great frustration for all concerned which includes the taxi drivers and my enforcement officers.

 

Taxi drivers are allowed to pick up pre-booked fares on Bewell Street that are ready to be picked up but should not sit and wait in the hope that someone will come out of Tesco and get into their taxi, which we know that they try to do.

 

When we patrol Bewell Street the taxi drivers see the enforcement officer and move on. If a driver does not move the officer will speak to the driver to see why he is waiting and unless there is a good reason the officer will ask the driver to move on.

 

The drivers who are unable to get on the small taxi rank tend to leave the area but simply go around the ‘block’ and come back again. As soon as my officers leave the area they start the whole process of queuing again.

 

We have issued a few penalty charge notices to taxis on Bewell Street in instances where the driver has refused to move or left the vehicle unattended but normally the driver is in the vehicle and moves when the officers come along.

 

We have also done joint patrols with the police to try and make more of an impact but as neither the police or us can be in the area all of the time the problem continues whenever we are not in the street.

 

Dave

 

David Hepworth

Parking Enforcement Team Leader

Herefordshire Council

Parking Services

Blueschool House

Blueschool Street

Hereford

HR1 2ZB

 

Tel. 01432 - 383276

email: dhepworth@herefordshire.gov.uk

[Colin James]

Parking tickets from the council I view differently to those private scammers issuing speculative invoices, however, this does seem unfair, one rule for one and turn a blind eye for another, good argument here though I would think.

[dippyhippy]

Hi Aylestone Voice,

 

This issue has rumbled on for ages. Do you remember the story about the car that had parked, obstructing the rear access of All Saints Church, and the vicar had to try to scramble over it to unlock the fire escape?

Apparently, the wording on the parking restriction signs in the area is incorrect and makes any action unenforceable.

 

I think Ubique's post covers most things!

[Biomech]

I will pay when you start enforcing the double yellow lines in Bewell Street which are always clogged up with taxis. 

 

 

 

The trick is that they stay in the car, if the handbreak isn't on, technically you're "stopped" not "parked" ;)

[Biomech]

This issue has rumbled on for ages. Do you remember the story about the car that had parked, obstructing the rear access of All Saints Church, and the vicar had to try to scramble over it to unlock the fire escape?

 

 

 

I know a shop down Eign Gate that periodically open their fire escape .... eagerly. I mean, there shouldn't be anything parked across it ... right? ;)

[Roger]

This issue has rumbled on for ages.

 

Yup. If you look at the current google street view image of Bewell Street (dated Sept.2012) it is probably pretty typical. 6 cabs parked on the rank at Tesco ... 4 cabs in the overflow on 'the wall' ... one cab outside the Tesco front door (indicating to others that the rank and overflow are full) ... and then various other taxis dotted along the street ... one driver even out of his cab talking to the driver behind whilst their incessant wait for a fare continues....

 

It's quite clear that its pretty tricky to give a parking ticket to the cabs as the drivers' are all with their cars and as soon as anyone turns up they either move 'around the block' voluntarily or after having been told to do so.

 

The whole area is under a Council camera which could easily be used by their Taxi Dept. to act on the cabbies clogging the street -under the taxi rules. Just announce that there will be a clampdown and then issue a graduated series of punishments against the driver's involved.

 

But you can't fit a quart into a pint pot and Hereford is saturated with taxis with too few taxi spaces ... I don't anticipate much happening with this issue to be honest ... 

[dippyhippy]

I think you may be right here Roger, forgive my ignorance, but is there a reason why another taxi rank could not be created?

 

Obviously Wide marsh Street has been lost, and Commercial Road is evenings only.

 

What about Broad Street as a location?

 

Would this help to improve things, or would it just clog up another area?

[dippyhippy]

I know a shop down Eign Gate that periodically open their fire escape .... eagerly. I mean, there shouldn't be anything parked across it ... right? ;)

Quite right!

 

There shouldn't be!

[Roger]

I think you may be right here Roger, forgive my ignorance, but is there a reason why another taxi rank could not be created?

 

Obviously Wide marsh Street has been lost, and Commercial Road is evenings only.

 

What about Broad Street as a location?

 

Would this help to improve things, or would it just clog up another area?

 

There is a rank on Broad Street ... approximately opposite the Green Dragon ... There are very few spaces and obviously the drivers' will gravitate to the most lucrative. Which in the daytime is Tesco. You can very often see a snake of taxis spend 15/20 minutes creeping down Bewell Street to one by one fill up the spaces on the Full Tesco rank as shoppers leave. This is contrary to the rules and doing that (in theory) attracts 2 taxi penalty points (page 33) from the Council infringement list.

 

The problem enforcing the taxi rank rule is that it won't actually generate any cash. 

[dippyhippy]

I can't believe I didn't know there WAS a taxi rank on Broad Street!

 

There you go, you learn something new every day!

 

But it does beg the question, just how many people realise that there is a taxi rank here?

[Roger]

But it does beg the question, just how many people realise that there is a taxi rank here?

 

 

The start of the rank is outside Oswin's ... And it's very often not full. Because the demand is low in that area. 

[dippyhippy]

Thanks for the photo!

 

You're quite right......it's not often full, otherwise I'm sure I would have noticed that it was a taxi rank by now! I walk down there regularly!

 

So, if the rank here is under utilised, and Tescos' rank is heaving under the strain.....surely there should be some way around this?

[Roger]

surely there should be some way around this?

 

The Council camera is situated over the Rank ... no additional cost to point it at the problem ...

 

Possible small cost of downloading offending footage onto a DVD .... 

 

Taxi enforcement people calling people into their office to issue warnings/cautions based on the footage ~ for failing to move on if a rank is full on arrival ... No cost as they are employed for taxi purposes anyway ... 

 

Issue 1 month taxi bans for repeat offenders ...

 

How expensive/difficult is this to achieve? 

 

People are fed up with Bewell Street constantly clogged up with a problem that could be solved with minimal effort ... 

[Biomech]

But it does beg the question, just how many people realise that there is a taxi rank here? 

 

 

 

Everyone? :P

 

And they go mental if you're in it by 2 inches even if most of it is empty - and they'll box you in to teach you a lesson

[dippyhippy]

Yes, it's definitely there!

 

I walked down there today, to see it with my own two eyes - and there is definitely a taxi rank in Broad Street!

 

Looking at Rogers photo, I thought there would be room for about six taxis, but it actually only looks big enough for four. Completely empty though!

 

Tesco - once again - was rammed! (And two of them, had no driver in them.....perhaps they had nipped to the loo....??)