BOLTON STATION

TAXI drivers have been labelled 'inconsiderate' and 'lazy' for causing traffic chaos outside a railway station.

Drivers are fed up with the daily mayhem in Trinity Street, Bolton town centre, where private hire cabs regularly stop in the middle of the road to pick up or drop off passengers — even though there are often parking spaces just a few yards further down the road's lay-by.

Commuters, buses and Hackney carriage drivers have faced major delays around the junction of Trinity Street and Newport Street for years, but their problems have deepened since a revamp of the town centre's road network.

Now that Great Moor Street is one-way, traffic must travel down Newport Street and turn left to access Bradshawgate, Manchester Road, or the A666.

That means that more vehicles than ever are forced through the Trinity Street bottleneck, where arguments regularly break out between drivers.
Cllr David Chadwick, Bolton Council cabinet member for highways, said: "We have been concerned for a number of years about taxi drivers just pulling up in the middle of the carriageway in Trinity Street. They are causing mayhem.

"It is not just that you have taxis stopping, but there are also passengers getting out of the vehicles in the middle of the road.

"It is a complete and utter aberration and an accident waiting to happen.

"We have looked at a number of options to stop it from happening, but it hasn't been possible.
"We would like to be able to prosecute people who do it, but we aren't in a position to do that.

"We can't have parking wardens stationed there all the time and they can't walk out into the road themselves to issue a notice."

The council used to use a CCTV 'spy car' to tackle the issue, but they were banned by the Government to stop 'over-zealous' enforcement.
There are now calls to make the road a clearway, meaning it would be illegal to stop on the carriageway for any reason except in an emergency.

Hackney carriage driver Zulfaqar Shah, chairman of the Bolton Taxi Drivers Association, said: "The biggest problem at the moment is when the private hire drivers come to pick up. They don't bother to move five yards down into the lay-by, they just stop in the middle of the road and block our exit.

"Trinity Street needs to be turned into a clearway to stop people parking there.

"I have complained a number of times to the council and nothing has been done.

"The situation is definitely much worse now since Great Moor Street became one-way."

The black cabs have their own taxi rank outside the railway station, in Newport Street, and are regularly blocked in because of the congestion in Trinity Street.

Driver Sajid Mahmood added: "This is a problem for all of us.

"Sometimes it can take me 15 minutes to get out onto Trinity Street, and my meter is running all that time.

"It is really difficult for buses trying to turn left out of Newport Street, too. I have seen some private hire drivers start arguments with bus drivers at that junction.

"The private hire drivers just don't care, it has been going on for years."

Cllr Chadwick added: "It has been the bane of our lives for ages, it is so inconsiderate.

"The vast majority of the cars causing problem are private hire taxis. The black Hackney carriages have their own taxi rank outside the station in Newport Street.

"It is sheer laziness from the private hire drivers to stop in the middle of the road, rather than pulling into the parking spaces further down Trinity Street.

http://bit.ly/2AdFnqH
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A taxi driver from Cambridge has admitted grooming a 'boy' online and attempting to meet him for sex in Bishop's Stortford.

Louis Treziese was told he faces prison for the offence when he appeared before St Albans Crown Court on Thursday, November 2.

Treziese, who lives in Cambridge, had pleaded not guilty to arranging to meet a child under the age of 16 for sex after grooming, and was due to face a full trial in less than two weeks' time.

But during Thursday's hearing he pleaded guilty to grooming a 15-year-old 'boy' he had met online and then arranging to meet up with him on May 18 in Bishop's Stortford.

Treziese was arrested after communicating with they boy, which turned out to be a decoy set up by so-called online vigilantes CSE Interceptors.

The court imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, banning Treziese from contact with children aged under 16 unless it is "inadvertent or unavoidable". He was also put on the sex offenders register.

Treziese was then released on bail until his sentencing hearing, due to take place on Tuesday, November 28.

http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/louis-treziese-cambridge-cse-interceptors-13864569 
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Four have been jailed after a plot to smuggle three kilos of cocaine into Birmingham was uncovered.

A taxi driver and two crooked baggage handlers have been jailed for their roles.

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Four have been jailed after a plot to smuggle three kilos of cocaine into Birmingham was uncovered.
A taxi driver and two crooked baggage handlers have been jailed for their roles.

Officers from the National Crime Agency swooped to arrest Adnan Malik, who was about to drive to the West Midlands city with the drugs.
This came after the substance was brought into the country via Heathrow, reports the Birmingham Mail.

Malik, 24, of Paignton Road, Edgbaston, and Vaughan Henry, 46, of Willsden, London, had previously been convicted of importing a controlled drug following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court.

Grattan Samuels, 23, of Victoria Park, and Dev Anand, 24, from Slough, had previously admitted the same charge.

Samuels, who had also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to acquire a firearm, was sentenced to 16 years.

Henry was jailed for ten years and nine months while Malik was handed a nine year sentence.
Anand was sentenced to seven years and eight months.

http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/local-news/revealed-taxi-driver-airport-workers-13861271 
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DERBY

A taxi driver says he feels lucky to have escaped uninjured after his passenger-side window was shattered by what he believes shot from a pellet gun.

Mohammed Afsar had a "huge shock" when he saw the damage after hearing a "loud zip" as he drove in Kingsway, on the approach to Uttoxeter New Road, Derby, at around 9.30am today.


Thankfully the 43-year-old Chads Cars driver did not have passengers in the taxi at the time because Mr Afsar believes they could have been hurt.

Mr Afsar, who was on his way to pick up passengers from the Royal Derby Hospital at the time, reported the incident to police and he said that an officer told him that it looked like the damage was caused by a pellet gun.

The father-of-three said: "As I approached the fire station I heard a loud zip sound - like a sprinted shot - and looked over my shoulder to see the window had been shattered.

"It was a huge shock - I remember thinking, 'is this really happening to me'.

"I dropped passengers off just minutes before it happened. What would have happened if it had been at the driver's window?

http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/derby-news/chads-cars-taxi-driver-shock-734598