Hundreds fined over parking in taxi ranks
ALMOST 300 parking tickets have been issued to drivers parking illegally on taxi ranks across the city.
A clampdown on unlawful parking led to 291 penalties handed to vehicles spotted breaking the rules since early November.
The majority of tickets were issued to vehicles left on ranks across the city centre with Sauchiehall Street – a particular hot spot.
But action was also taken at ranks on Queen Margaret Drive, Clarendon Place at St George’s Cross, Kilmarnock Road, in Shawlands, and Hardgate Road outside the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
Road regulations mean only licensed taxi cabs can wait in these road spaces and tickets were issued against a range of vehicles, including private hire cars as well as privately owned cars.
Taxi drivers are urging the public to follow the highway code as a result.
Councillor Alex Wilson, chairman of the council’s licensing and regulatory committee, said the figures should serve as a clear warning.
Mr Wilson said: “Taxis are key part of the city’s transport system and the ranks have an essential role in people being able hire a cab without advance booking.
“Anyone who parks on a rank without authority is snarling up the city’s transport system, creating road safety issues and making it harder for people to hire a cab.”
Over the past two years, 20 additional spaces have been brought into use on taxi ranks.
Taxi drivers say that members of the public should be more “considerate” to them.
Calum Anderson, chairman of the Glasgow CAB Section at Unite, said: “It is hard enough to get into a taxi rank without someone else parking there.
“This situation is wholly unacceptable and is a risk to public health and safety. The problem is out of control – it is shambolic.”