Proposed railway station changes condemned by Chichester Labour Party
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National Rail’s contracted parking providers, Saba UK, announced the decision in late January to remove the taxi rank from the southern side of the station to create more car parking spaces. Read more here
Taxi driver Jim Rendall, who told the Observer last week that the changes would be a ‘recipe for disaster’, has since received the backing of the Chichester Labour party.
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Hide AdA spokesman said: “The decision is another example of large organisations trampling on the livelihoods of small and medium-sized local businesses. Drivers received very little notice from the company regarding the intention to create more parking spaces by removing the taxi rank.
“As the only other taxi rank in the city is in West Street, the opportunities for drivers to ply their trade in Chichester will be further reduced.”
Labour’s Chichester East ward prospective election candidate Kevin Hughes, said the response from council representatives to the drivers’ requests for more information has been ‘disappointingly unsympathetic’.
He added: “In addition, this once again illustrates how the privatisation of our public services has failed.
“Constant parcelling up of services to providers that are more and more remote from the ability of anyone to hold them to account threatens local peoples’ livelihoods and the quality of services.”