Parklife 2017 - Manchester Hackney Carriage Arrangements

Dear All,

This year's Parklife Event will take place at Heaton Park on Saturday 10 June and Sunday 11 June. 

  Maximum capacity for each day of the event is
75000.

Please find below proposals in respect of Manchester Licensed Hackney Carriages for this year’s Event.

You are probably aware by now, in response to Trade Representation, this year the Council & Parklife organisers have arranged for a rank within the park for Manchester licensed Hackney carriages.

The rank will be situated in the same area as the private hire operation that has operated there in
previous years - for clarity, Streetcars have been licensed to provide the private hire facility.

Vehicle access to the Rank - see attached map
The entertainment within the park is scheduled to finish at 11:00pm on each night, however we know from experience that there is a steady egress from the event from around 7.00pm onwards, obviously with peak time being 10pm-12midnight.

During  the egress phase of the event, Sheepfoot Lane is closed and Manchester licensed Taxis (and Streetcars private hire) will be directed in via Bury Old Road, right onto Park Road, right onto Windsor Road, left onto Meade Hill Road and across Sheepfoot Lane into the park
(please see attached map).

Event staff will be directing the access to
enable both Taxis and private hire vehicles to service the waiting customers. There will also be a prepared queue and holding area stewarded
along Windsor Road (closed off to passing public during the egress).

Manchester Licensing Unit officers will be working throughout the whole egress period to ensure the arrangements are running as smoothly as possible and to assist in dealing with any issues, as well as enforcing against any illegal ply for hire.

Queueing System

Customers within the park will be signposted to both the Taxi & Private Hire waiting area if these are the methods of transport they are choosing -
they will access a queueing for either facility by exiting the park at the Sheepfoot Lane entrance immediately adjacent to both operations and
re-entering via a marshalled queue entrance (see attached map).

At the entrance, there will be a clear choice for customers with signs for either 'Taxi' or 'Private Hire'.

Marshalls present will be able to advise
customers of the potential waiting time dependant on numbers of vehicles available at either the Taxi Rank or the Streetcars booking point.

Marshalls & Licensing Unit officers will be ensuring that this system is operated fairly and monitoring Streetcars staff, to ensure they do not
approach customers in the Taxi Rank queue.

Vehicle egress

Having collected passengers, all vehicles will exit back onto Sheepfoot Lane towards Middleton Road and be directed to turn North. Event Staff on
each night will gradually lift the road closures as becomes practically necessary.

Other information

There will be no other rank provided for Manchester Licensed Hackney's.

Bury Hackney vehicles will be picking up from the Woodthorpe Public House.

Following the difficulties experienced during egress at last year’s event when Sheepfoot Lane was closed to all traffic for safety reasons, new
arrangements have been agreed this year with GMP & Event organisers aimed at ensuring a continual and steady flow of licenced vehicles across Sheepfoot Lane into the park throughout peak egress.

Additional signage and improved briefing of event staff and marshalls has also been organised to
help better manage the arrangements within the park.

Following feedback from Trade Representatives in regard to the 2016 event, we consulted with Highways & TfGM to look at possible alternative access routes for Manchester Hackney's to the rank in the park.

Unfortunately we were unable to find any suitable alternative routes that allowed for safe management of other transport arrangements, although it has been recognised that the closure points needed amending along the route.

Our message to the Hackney Trade following some of the difficulties experienced last year, is
that we have worked hard to ensure that access to the rank is much improved this year by planning:

• earlier attendance by compliance officers at the rank

• improved briefing of Marshalls & Event Staff on site and along the route to the rank

• clearer signage to festival goers which will indicate 'Taxi / Pre-Booked Private Hire'

• even tighter management of Street Cars compliance with regulations

• continual and steady access to the rank throughout each night

Please note, it is still anticipated that delays may be experienced exiting the park during peak egress.

All other private hire operations have been directed to Sainsbury's car park via Heaton Park Road West - which will also be stewarded. Manchester Licensing Officers will also be at this location.

We would like to remind Hackney Carriage Drivers that:

• They are only permitted to ply for hire within the confines of Heaton Park as this lies within the boundaries of the City of Manchester. 

The approach route from Bury Old Road to access the rank in the park is located in Bury and the driver of any Manchester Hackney Carriage plying for hire in this area is not licensed to do so and will be committing criminal offences.

You are also reminded that Sheepfoot Lane and the area outside the Woodthorpe public house are also located within Bury. Dropping off passengers within the Bury area is an acceptable practice.

Bury Licensing Officers will also be working over the weekend.

• Set fares can only be negotiated with passengers for ‘out of area’ journeys, all other fares must be Taximeter fare in accordance with the current city council fare tariff.

Evidence of illegal practices will result in Manchester licensed drivers facing prosecution and/or appearance before the Licensing & Appeals sub-committee.

Taxi Licensing Team
Manchester City Council
E-mail: taxi.licensing@manchester.gov.uk