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Allan Evans and I were asked
by Westminster Parking Office to meet with their
Policy Project Officer to discuss plans they are looking to
implement, which would assist taxi drivers in going about their
day to day business within the Borough. It was pointed out that the majority of PCNs issued were for parking offences on yellow lines - single and double. Currently, CCTV camera operators are requested to monitor a driver for a minimum of two minutes before issuing the ticket. Their question to us was whether we felt an extension to the two-minute observation time - by increasing it to five minutes - would improve the situation and help reduce some of the PCNs issued? While we accept that any additional time allowed could help improve the situation, there would |
Soon after
Call Sign’s visit to Westminster’s CCTV HQ, the same council
invited DaC in for a discussion on the parking problems the
Society and the trade in general has. Keith Cain and Allan Evans
went along to meet what many perceive to be our biggest enemies! Parking: DaC meet with Westminster… |
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 be no better solution than a full exemption to taxi drivers. Unfortunately we accept that this will never happen, but we did ask for more driver awareness information because there are a number of tickets issued to drivers who stop and wait in bus stops, resident parking bays and loading bays. We also asked if they would |
look more favourable at
a radio taxi driver who could prove via provided information from Dial-a-Cab, that they were hired on an account ride and perhaps even more so if it was a Westminster TaxiCard trip with the possibility that the passenger was disabled. They felt it was a valid request and would discuss it further. While no definite changes have been made, we were very pleased to have the opportunity of giving our opinions and to be able offer some alternative solutions… Keith Cain |
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"Lost" Lost property! At last Stanley gets his money… |
Perhaps Call Sign has got it wrong, but had it been the
other way round, wouldn’t the PCO have then been involved?
Perhaps they should act on Stanley’s behalf and insist that
someone from the MPS should pay Stanley the £345 that is now
rightfully his…? |
| In the October issue,
Call Sign ran an article that asked serious questions
of the taxi lost property system. We told how Dial-a-Cab driver
Stanley Roth (Y53) had handed in a wallet containing
£345, that someone had left in the back of his taxi, to a London
police station. With no reward received by the end of
April, he assumed the wallet hadn’t been claimed and was
therefore his. But it had gone missing from the police station
he had handed it into… He complained and an investigation by the police took place during which they claimed that due to the length of time that had elapsed, CCTV pictures that would have showed him handing in the wallet and getting a receipt had been deleted. The police also claimed that "items they would have expected to locate" – Call Sign assumes that meant the original Lost Property book - they were unable to, as they had apparently been removed. That would have included the original entry that recorded Stanley as handing the wallet in. Fortunately, Stanley still had his original copy and added how inconvenient it must have been for all the relevant records and CCTV to suddenly disappear! He also asked what incentive there was to be honest? A high level Met Police officer responded, assuring Stanley that the MPS had not tried to "wipe their hands" of the matter and that a criminal and misconduct investigation had been undertaken to detect any wrongdoing. Other than an officer being disciplined in respect of record keeping and conducting property checks, the MPS officer said there was insufficient evidence to prove a case of theft against any one person. The officer added that a full and transparent investigation had been undertaken but agreed that the conclusion was "somewhat frustrating." Well, yes, it certainly was for Stanley Roth. But now Stanley has received a letter from an OCU Commander who, "having fully reviewed this matter," had no doubt that the situation arose due to "human error" and that Stan should be assured that the Commander had taken positive action to ensure it does not occur again. In the following issue of this magazine (November), we said: |
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