Disabled victimised at Winter Wonderland by Westminster City Council…. By Jim Thomas

At a site meeting, which took place yesterday, the trade found that the major objector to drivers using the rank, usually implemented outside the main exit to Winter Wonderland on South Carriage Drive (SCD), is in fact “Westminster City Council”.

Westminster officials are adamant that the trade should be banned from SCD and be made to use the new, badly situated rank, in a deserted part of North Carriage Drive.

Something is not right here and only time will tell why we have been excluded from SCD, as no rational explanation has been laid on the table.

When asked about disabled access to transport from the event, Westminster City Council unbelievably suggested that people with disabilities such as wheelchair users, should make their way across a major six lane 40mph carriageway (Park Lane), to the Intercontinental rank in Hamilton Place, on the off chance there may be a taxi waiting there.
Surely under the Equality Act this can’t be ethical. 

The London Taxi trade have also been informed that as far as Westminster are concerned, the book is now closed on this issue and there will be no further meetings or discussions.

But last night, defiant Taxi Drivers were still ranking outside the main exit on South Carriage Drive. Police were occasionally moving on Cabs, but speaking to individual officers, it appears, most actually support the call for a reinstatement of the old rank on safety issues.

To say members of certain orgs within the United Trade Group are disappointed with their reps handling of this issue, would be a massive understatement. Many feel the situation should never have got this far out of hand and a suitable rank should have been sorted  months ago.

Perhaps these people who take our hard earned money, just are not up to the job! 

As of this morning, no official statement has been made on behalf of the United Trade Group to their members.