Withy Grove.  Rank Lies


The Withy Grove Rank opened on December 18. The following Email was sent out.

  Christmas Period - Taxi Marshal Service and Ranks.

  1.   The following Taxi Marshal cover has been agreed for the Christmas and New Year period:

  Thursday 12th December 2012 - 22-30hrs through to 04-30hrs
  Friday 13th December 2012 - 22-30hrs through to 04-30hrs
  Saturday 14th December 2012 - 22-30hrs through to 04-30hrs

  Thursday 19th December 2012. - 22-30hrs through to 04-30hrs
  Friday 20th December 2012 - 22-30hrs through to 04-30hrs
  Saturday 21st December 2012 - 22-30hrs through to 04-30hrs

  Friday 27th December 2012 - 22-30hrs through to 04-30hrs
  Saturday 28th December 2012 - 22-30hrs through to 04-30hrs
  Tuesday 31st December 2012 - 22-30hrs through to 04-30hrs

  2.   Commencing on Friday 6th December 2013, an existing rank will be added to the Taxi Marshal scheme.  This is the Whitworth Street West rank outside Sainburys and opposite the Oxford Road Station entrance road in  the City Centre.  The Taxi Marshals will be present from 22-30hrs through  to 04-30hrs every Friday and Saturday and also on the additional dates  mentioned above over Christmas and New Year.  This additional provision  will continue until further notice.

  3.   The physical construction of a new rank on Withy Grove in the City  Centre is almost complete and work on the required traffic order to give  the rank legal standing is underway.  The intention is to have this rank  open in time for Christmas.  Once opened this rank will be manned by Taxi  Marshals from 22-30hrs through to 04-30hrs every Friday and Saturday and  also on the additional dates mentioned above over Christmas and New Year.

  Further information on the opening of this rank will be passed on when it  is received.

 For your information the Withy Grove rank is a replacement rank for the one on Corporation Street outside Waxy O'Connors.  Access to the Corporation Street rank will be severely disrupted over the coming months  due to Metrolink works taking place. In the short term the plan is for both ranks to be available for use, however in the new year the  Corporation Street will close at some point.

It came as some surprise that the New Withy Grove rank closed after only five days. The Rank is still closed.

One of the trade reps asked for information on the closure, he got this tissue of Lies in reply.

"My understanding is that the Withy Grove rank has been created primarily as a temporary replacement rankfor when the Corporation Street rank has to close, to enable Metrolink works to be carried out. This means that one rank or the other, not both, will remain open at all times.

Highways made a one off decision to allow both ranks to be open and operational at the same time form a short duration over the busy Christmas and New Year period.

After further consideration by Highways, this period of dual operation when both ranks will be open at the same time has now been reduced and the Withy Grove rank was shut on 23 December."

This was obviously a load of 'Old Bull' what was the real reason for this.???

A quick look at the Legal Notices section of Evening News today 27 December gives us the real reason. The original notice posted in the MEN on December 11, was issued incorrectly.

Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984

Duration of orders and notices under s.14.

(1)Subject to subsections (2), (3) and (5) below, an order under section 14 of this Act shall not continue in force—

(a)if it is in respect of a footpath, bridleway, cycle track or byway open to all traffic, for more than six months; and

TPC Act 1847

Town police clauses Act 1847.


(2)Before appointing any stand for hackney carriages or varying the number of hackney carriages to be at each stand in exercise of the powers of this section, a district council shall give notice to the chief officer of police for the police area in which the stand is situated and shall also give public notice of the proposal by advertisement in at least one local newspaper circulating in the district and shall take into consideration any objections or representations in respect of such proposal which may be made to them in writing within twenty-eight days of the first publication of such notice.

The Lies of the second email were to cover up, this massive error.

The error has further implications. Marshalls have been booked to operate this rank over the Xmas/New year period. They will still have to be paid, by Manchester's long suffering proprietors.

I suggest to all of you that Manchester has the most inept staff in the Country.