After years of complaining regularly using email, Twitter and the TfL reporting tool (located on the TfL enforcement web page), drivers have now voiced concerns that LTPH, the Met Police and Westminster council are still ignoring the constant illegal plying for hire and touting occurring every night of the week in the bus lane, located at the junction of Regent Street and Swallow Street.
Why no action from LTPH after drivers making so many complaints?
In the form of a reply to a FOI request, LTPH have now informed us that complaints made other than by written letters, delivered by post, are not regarded as formal complaints, therefore, are not recorded as statistics.
To be honest, in all my 40 years of driving a Taxi, I have never heard such a ridicules statement from a government department.
So all the drivers who struggled to navigate the TfL web site, where you need a degree in IT to find the reporting tool, which is tucked neatly away...have been wasting their time and efforts.
I remember being at a meeting in Palestra last year, where I was asked to publicise the reporting tool. At the time I made my views clear that I personally thought it should be renamed the shredder as I feared complaints would be collated and ignored en-masse.
Apparently, I've been proved right.
Drivers would have had more luck putting a written complaint in a bottle and chucking it off Chelsea bridge, hoping a staff member from Palestra would fish it out as it floated down the Thames.
LTPH have now informed us that complaints made online are only use for intelligence, to shape action taken by enforcement and compliance teams.
The action they refer to though, seems to be a complete mystery.
After a year of virtual non enforcement at this location, it seems my original suggestion was spot on.
Below is the reply to our Freedom of Information request, put forward by one of our top researchers.
TfL Ref: FOI-0945-1314
Thank you for your further email which we received on 27 August 2013.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act and our information access policy. I can confirm we hold some of the information you require. You asked for:
Could you please confirm which teams you would be contacting as I believe that all complaints about Taxi drivers are dealt with by one Department namely " Taxi & Private Hire"
Complaints submitted to the Taxi and Private Hire (TPH) directorate are received by different teams within the directorate including the Enquiries team, the Intelligence team, the Customer Support team, the Complaints team, the Ranks and Interchange team and the Compliance team. We would have to contact all of these teams to establish if they have recorded any complaints about the Paddington Station area.
I want to know how many complaints was received by TPH about over ranking and parking in the Paddington Station area.
Also I would like to know how many complaints was received by TPH about private hire vehicles parked at the junction of Regent Street and Swallow Street.
I would like, if possible, for both searches to start from the 6 August 2013 going back in time I.e. 5, 4, 3, August 2013 until the £450 cost limit is met or the two years whichever is sooner.
We have done a search for complaints received between 13 February 2012 and 6 August 2013. I can confirm we received 15 complaints regarding over ranking and parking in the Paddington Station area. In the same period, we received one complaint regarding Private Hire vehicles parked at the junction of Regent Street and Swallow Street.
Please note that the results only include written correspondences which were submitted as formal complaints. We have not included intelligence reports (which are used to shape compliance deployments), telephone conversations or emails as they are not formally captured but have been addressed. Reports received through our Twitter feed are also not regarded as formal complaints. However we do review our twitter feed on a regular basis and are aware of ongoing problems at Swallow Street and Regent Street. Frequent enforcement operations are carried out at these locations.
Date received | Subject of complaint |
13 February 2012 | Road users being affected by taxis over-ranking at Paddington |
23 March 2012 | Road users being affected by taxis over-ranking at Paddington |
27 March 2012 | Road users being affected by taxis over-ranking at Paddington |
17 April 2012 | Over-ranking at the Paddington Station taxi rank causing obstruction to surround roads |
25 July 2012 | Road users being affected by Taxis queuing in Edgware Road and Harrow Road causing congestion on the highway and blocking cycle lane |
04 December 2012 | Taxis ranking along the Harrow Road near Paddington Station causing congestion on the highway |
03 January 2013 | Taxis ranking outside the Hilton and Praed Street entrance to the station causing traffic. |
09 January 2013 | Taxis over-ranking on Praed Street causing obstructions and affecting local businesses. |
10 January 2013 | The junction at Praed Street/Edgware Road being blocked |
10 January 2013 | Taxis queuing in Edgware Road and Harrow Road causing congestion on the highway |
20 February 2013 | Taxis queuing and blocking Praed Street obstructing buses |
26 March 2013 | Buses being obstructed causing delay for other road users being delayed on Praed Street |
27 March 2013 | Road users being affected by taxis over-ranking at Paddington |
17 May 2013 | Taxis parking in Praed Street obstructing and blocking emergency service vehicles from entering St Mary's Hospital A&E |
27 June 2013 | Taxis parking in Praed Street obstructing and blocking emergency service vehicles from entering St Mary's Hospital A&E |
11 July 2013 | Minicabs parking and causing on obstruction on Swallow Street |
We recognise there are ongoing issues at the locations you have highlighted and we are working with the police and other agencies to address these issues.
With thanks to Dave Little.
'We have our cameras EVERYWHERE, there aren't too many places not only a bus but an individual can hide within London that we can no longer see'
Micheal Joseph's, Centrecomm Opperations Manager.
EDITORIAL COMMENT:
Complaints Against Taxis.
It looks to us that the "Official" complaints made against Taxis on Harrow Road and Praed Street have been "managed". It would be interesting to know if all the complaints made against Taxis were written and posted or delivered online.
Over-Ranking
Over-ranking, is a byproduct resulting from the removal of rank spaces, leaving an expanding Taxi trade under facilitated. While satillete offices licenses are given out like cheap sweets, taxi ranks spaces are disappearing daily.
Taxi rank availability in Central London has been extremely badly managed since TfL took over licensing from the Met, presently just 1 rank space available, per 65 Taxis.
Drivers forming a queue along Harrow, are not parked. They are not causing traffic congestion, they are sitting in congestion, waiting to join a badly managed Taxi rank.
How do Taxis parked outside the Hilton in Praed Street obstruct emergency vehicles accessing St Mary's A&E...it's hyped up rubish, spun by LTPH.
Illegal plying for hire by Private Hire.
How come LTPH haven't released a notice similar to 20/13 in respect of illegal plying for hire, illegal forming of a rank and contravention of a bus lane, by licensed private hire drivers at Swallow and Regent Street?
Why have there been no complaints from Bus Companies/Drivers about Private Hire drivers illegally plying for hire in the Regent Street Bus Lane between 9pm and midnight?
Lost in the post?
How come no complaints from emergency services about private hire drivers blocking access to Swallow Street?
Do Ambalances and Fire Engines not get caught in the congestion caused by the actions of Private Hire Drivers?
In part 2, we will be postings article that shows Westminster lied about the reason behind the lack of parking enforcement at this location.