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East Renfrewshire Taxi Drivers’ Association presses council for wardens and taxi rank camera enforcement
Taxi drivers in East Renfrewshire are calling on the council to tackle persistent parking at designated taxi stances, after a photograph taken in Clarkston showed all four spaces blocked, including by a Police Scotland van.
The East Renfrewshire Licensed Drivers’ Association (ERLDA) said the Mearns Road stance was completely occupied by vehicles other than licensed taxis when the photograph was taken at 12.30pm on Friday 23 October. The association acknowledged that police vehicles may have legitimate operational reasons to stop in restricted areas.
ERLDA said drivers have repeatedly raised access problems with council officials through the East Renfrewshire Hire Car Forum, which discusses matters affecting the licensed trade. The association said drivers continue to report difficulty using the stances and that it has seen little evidence of improvement.
“Taxi drivers are regularly arriving at designated taxi stances only to find they can’t get access because the spaces are being occupied by other vehicles,” said John Munn, the association’s taxi representative.
He said blocked stands affected drivers’ ability to work and members of the public who rely on taxi services. “We need proper enforcement to make sure these stances are available when drivers need them,” he said.
The council has told association representatives that enforcement is constrained by a shortage of parking enforcement wardens, according to ERLDA. The association is asking what steps the council has taken to address the staffing issue and whether the cost of additional wardens has been assessed against enforcement expenditure and potential penalty charge income.
“If the Council doesn’t have enough parking enforcement wardens to effectively enforce its own restrictions, then it needs to explain what it’s doing to address that shortage,” said John Paul Duffy, ERLDA’s general secretary.
The association has also proposed automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras at locations it describes as problem stances, particularly Mearns Road and Kennishead Road in Thornliebank. It said council officials had cited installation costs and access to DVLA vehicle registration information as reasons for not advancing the proposals.
ERLDA said camera-assisted enforcement would require assessment of legal powers, data protection requirements and operating costs, but wants the council to publish its estimates and explain whether other options or a small-scale trial have been considered.
The association is seeking a formal response on enforcement staffing, the financial case for additional wardens, the cost and legal feasibility of ANPR, immediate action at the two locations, and timescales for improvements. It also wants the council to explain how any measures would be evaluated.
