BLACKPOOL

A £22m expansion of the Blackpool tramway has secured town hall approval - despite a last-ditch plea from taxi drivers for a re-think.

Councillors tonight voted in favour of the scheme to extend the line up Talbot Road to North Station, saying connectivity with the railway network was the right way forward.

A full meeting of Blackpool Council said the resort had to follow in the footsteps of cities such as Manchester which had successfully linked their tramways with the rail system.

Coun Gillian Campbell, deputy leader of the council, said: “Every town in the country that has a tramway or underground, operates it to meet with the major railway system, for example Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield, and there are clear advantages to this.”

She said measures would be taken to minimise potential disruption.

Coun Campbell added: “Councillors are looking at the detail and making sure we get it right and that’s why we delayed the decision at executive.

“We are questioning things with the intention of minimising disruption during the work and so it works as well as possible when completed.”

But representatives of Blackpool Licensed Taxi Operators Association told the meeting they feared the move would lead to traffic congestion.

Association secretary Bill Lewtas warned surrounding town centre roads including the Promenade, Abingdon Street and Clifton Street would become gridlocked.

He said drivers travelling between the north and south of the resort would use other routes such as Whitegate Drive,clogging them up as well.

http://goo.gl/CJ3LqY

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DUMFRIES

A woman was subjected to a sex attack after getting into what she thought was a taxi.

Detectives have launched an investigation and are hunting the man who posed as a private hire cab driver in Dumfries on Saturday night.

The 40-year-old woman got into the car, described as grey or silver, on Munches Street at around 11pm to make her way home.

During the journey the driver made improper suggestions to the victim before sexually assaulting her.

She was not injured but was left in a "shocked and distraught state", police said.

The driver of the car and the man police want to interview is described as being white, in his 30s to 40s, medium build, shaved head and clean shaven and was wearing light jeans. He may have spoken with an eastern European accent.

Detective sergeant Scott Torrance at Dumfries said: "Munches Street on a Saturday night is a busy place and we are appealing to anyone who may have been in that area to call us on 101 if they can help us identify this man or his car.

"The car is thought to be silver or grey in colour. We also want to hear from anyone who may have had any similar experience, either on Saturday night or on a previous occasion, where they may have got into a car which turned out not to be a registered taxi.

http://goo.gl/f7GO2g

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Cambridge could get electric-only taxi ranks as council looks to boost air quality across city

Electric-only taxi ranks could be on their way to Cambridge after a new report named them as a potential way to improve air quality across the city.

The idea has been mooted in a new environment report as Cambridge City Council pushes forward with its bid to encourage the use of low-emission taxis.

Now council officials are set to consult with taxi drivers across the city to see what they think could be done to help incentivise their use – and clean up our air in the process.

Cllr Peter Roberts, executive councillor for environment and waste, said: “Low emission taxis have the benefit of being both less polluting and having lower operating costs, so it is right that we should look at ways to incentivise their take-up by the taxi trade.

“A shift towards low emission taxis in Cambridge forms an important part of our Air Quality Action Plan to improve air quality in parts of the city dominated by buses, taxis and service vehicles.

“These proposals to reduce emissions from vehicles in the city will benefit people in Cambridge, especially those susceptible to heart and lung conditions."

Consulting the taxi trade is one of a number of suggestions laid out in a new report to the council's environment scrutiny committee, which aims to employ a number of different measures to improve air quality in Cambridge.

In addition to the creation of an electric-only taxi rank, the report names the provision of a number of taxi-only charging points to incentivise the use of low-emission vehicles.

http://goo.gl/1jRcMT

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MANCHESTER
 
Taxi driver caught five times the drink-drive limit while picking up holidaymakers from Manchester Airport
   
Gurpraat Johal - whose lawyer said had been drinking a bottle of whisky a day for the past three years - has now been jailed  

A cabbie who drove from Huddersfield to Manchester Airport while five times over the booze limit to pick up a group of holidaymakers has been jailed.

Gurpraat Johal, 38, was locked up for 12 weeks after his lawyer told Manchester Magistrates Court he had been drinking a bottle of whisky a day for the past three years.

Paul Darnborough, defending said: “This man is dying, he is killing himself with whisky."

Divorced father-of-three Johal had spent 90 minutes on the M60 and M62 getting to the airport on the evening of April 10.

“He is a chronic alcoholic and has suffered serious damage to his liver,” added Mr Darnborough.

Johal, of Gilthwaites Grove, Denby Dale, had pleaded guilty to driving his 12 seater taxi after consuming excess alcohol.

He was banned from the road for 36 months. Court chairwoman Pauline Salisbury said: “This offence is so serious the only sentence is one of custody.

“This was a blatant disregard to the safety of other people. You drove for 90 minutes on two busy motorways and were going to take several passengers back to Huddersfield.

http://goo.gl/FSniCS