Taxi Alliance Liverpool are calling on their fellow "cabbies to do the right thing" and hand video clips to police


Taxi drivers are being urged to share CCTV footage from their cabs after a man was stabbed to death in Liverpool city centre in the early hours of this morning.

Taxi Alliance Liverpool have sent out several messages to their fellow drivers imploring them to hand over any video clips to police if they were in Hanover Street at 4am when the 20-year-old was attacked and killed.

The group posted to Twitter to call on drivers working in the trade to “do the right thing” after the young man’s tragic stabbing death by the junction of Wood Street.

Emergency service crews were called to reports of the shocking incident this morning and took the man to hospital - but he later died from his injuries.

Taxi Alliance Liverpool posted three messages about the incident.

The first read: “Listen all you cabbies, the lads and girls of our trade, a young 20-year-old lad went on a night out last night he hasn’t gone home to his parents he was murdered on Hanover Street so get your CCTV from your cab if you were in the area this morning and pass to @MerPolChiefCon.”

The Twitter account then posted another message to state that “20 year olds don’t get murdered on Hanover Street taxi rank without someone seeing what happened!”

Bank holiday shoppers were left shocked and appalled as they arrived in the city centre on Sunday to find a full-scale crime scene.

This morning, forensic teams were spotted meticulously working to gather and document evidence while uniformed officers guarded the cordon and detectives carried out their investigations as more and more people arrived in to Liverpool on one of the warmest days of the year so far.

The alliance team posted a third message this afternoon continuing to remind cabbies to “share their footage”.

They wrote: “Cabbies working the rank this morning remember this, it could have been one of our sons murdered on Hanover Street rank!

“If you have CCTV DO THE RIGHT THING and let’s try to help @MerPolChiefCon stop this happening in our great city #tomuchtoooftenstopknifecrime”.

Liverpool Mayor Joe Anderson also echoed calls for anyone with information to share that with police too.

He wrote on social media: “Anyone who has any information on the horrific fatal stabbing that took place on Hanover Street in city centre please, please contact @MerseyPolice we need to catch the person responsible quickly. Another senseless act leaving a family heartbroken. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.”

Passers-by, both tourists and locals, told the ECHO they were shocked that a knife had been brought in to the city centre with such tragic consequences.

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NOTTINGHAM

Plans for a 'zero tolerance' approach to rogue taxi drivers in Nottinghamshire have been revealed as councils have confirmed plans for a clamp-down on illegal trade.

Nottingham City Council has joined forces with other local authorities to tackle the issue after it said concerns were raised about some private hire drivers allegedly operating illegally across the county without the fare being ‘pre-booked’ – a criminal offence known as illegally plying for hire.

Private hire vehicles can only pick up passengers when they have been pre-booked. They cannot be hailed down in the street in the same way as a hackney cab.

This is called plying for hire and is illegal as the customer is not insured if an accident occurs and the driver is in breach of his or her licence.

The city council, along with the local authorities in Gedling, Rushcliffe, Broxtowe, Bassetlaw and Newark & Sherwood have all signed the ‘Cross Border Enforcement Protocol' to tackle the issue.

In a first for the region, it will give officers from each council the ability to check, challenge and enforce against each other’s licensed private hire vehicles and hackney cabs.

Nottingham City Council’s portfolio holder for community and customer services, Councillor Toby Neal, said: “The joint protocol will allow officers to work together with the aim of keeping the public safe, as well as helping to ensure we have a healthy private hire trade operating in our area.

"Illegally operating private taxis are a real concern but we also need to ensure suitable driver behaviours, safe vehicles that are maintained to high standards and be allowed to manage our streets.

“We will now begin to take a zero tolerance approach to taxis needlessly parking in bus stops, pedestrianised areas or parking dangerously.

While we are working hard to support the trade, drivers need to understand their responsibilities.”
In Nottingham, there are around 1,700 Nottingham City Council licensed private hire drivers.

But the council said it is seeing is "thousands" of other private hire drivers coming from Gedling, Rushcliffe, Broxtowe and even Wolverhampton plying for hire on the city streets.

The new protocol will also see officers look out for a number of other offences, behaviours and standards.

Azeem Hanif, 46, of Basford, is the chairman of the trade union - United Private Hire Drivers (Nottingham Branch) - which supports more than 100 private hire drivers.

He said: "It is good news and I welcome news that they are looking to work together.

"However my main concern is what the impact will be for legitimate drivers who are also being singled out and targeted. We are allowed to pick up people when we have bookings.

"I have had members park on double yellow lines when it is not dangerous, we have a grace period [to pick people up] but they do not seem to understand that.

"We are trying to get a dialogue open with Nottingham City Council."

Wasim Amin, chairman of Nottingham Licensed Taxi Owners' and Drivers' Association, said: "Public safety is our number one priority as when the customer gets in a vehicle they need to be insured and not get overcharged."

Under the protocol, officers will also be able to check vehicle standards and remove its licence if they believe it poses a risk.

They will also be able to check the driver is operating legitimately and an increased number of joint operations will now go ahead.

Rushcliffe Borough Council’s deputy leader, Councillor Debbie Mason, said: “As a licensing authority we have a duty to ensure public safety and wherever possible licensed drivers operate lawfully in designated areas. This protocol will allow all of the officers to use their collective powers and work together across greater Nottingham.”

A spokesman for Gedling Borough Council said: “This joint work will raise the standards we provide for customers using taxis across the region and will give our officers the tools they need to continue to enforce against illegal pickups, wherever they happen.

"This should act as a warning that we will prosecute drivers, wherever they are, who pick up passengers knowing it’s illegal to do so.”

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COMFORTDELGRO Taxi, the taxi arm of Singapore-listed ComfortDelGro Corporation, on Monday said it has placed an order for 200 new hybrid Hyundai Ioniqs – its first in close to one-and-a-half years.

The first batch is due to arrive next month, and will immediately be leased out to the growing line of would-be hirers.

ComfortDelGro Taxi CEO Ang Wei Neng said: “We have seen things settle down lately with more drivers switching from private hire cars as they find driving taxis relatively more stable. At the same time, we also see more new drivers who have recently obtained the Taxi Driver's Vocational Licence joining us. We had stopped replacing old taxis for a while, but demand has grown in the last few months so we have decided to order new taxis.”

The group last placed an order for 1,050 taxis in December 2016.

ComfortDelGro Taxi signed on close to 300 new hirers in April – close to double the number in the same period last year. Drivers have also been taking on more booking jobs – about 9 per cent more than they did last year. 

With the latest purchase, ComfortDelGro Taxi will have a fleet of close to 13,000, representing a market share of about 60 per cent.

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