EXCLUSIVE: Mayor urges Bristol taxi drivers to work with him constructively, after protest causes gridlock

Bristol's mayor has urged the city's taxi drivers to work with him constructively, after a protest yesterday (01/09) left the centre completely gridlocked.

Bristol's blue taxis are angry that a rank directly outside the Hippodrome no longer exists; they say it used to be their most profitable spot.

It was originally removed back in 2015 when the metrobus was established although taxis have still been allowed to stop there unofficially since.

Yesterday's protest was sparked, we're told, because dozens of drivers have started receiving fines from the council for continuing to stop there.

Saif Hussain is the chair of the Bristol Blue Licenced Taxi Association (BBLTA).

"They (the fines) are coming through the post two, three at a time for each driver," he told us.

""I've had one myself.

"Come last week, they (the council) just started fining us, many, many fines and that's what's triggered this protest."

The city's blue taxi drivers fear they are being shut out of the market because they are no longer allowed to sit and wait for customers outside the theatre, but, they claim, private hire vehicles are allowed to stop there briefly to pick up or drop off pre booked rides.

Saif says the BBLTA have held talks with Bristol City Council which also involved other interested parties including the bus company and police, but to no avail.

"We didn't get what we wanted from that meeting and basically that was it," he said.

"The rank has been there since the 1980s and taxis have always used that rank.

"When the centre was remodelled in 2015 for the metrobus the signboard was removed...

"Despite that we worked there up till now, that's six years we worked there without a signboard, and in those six years we've been saying there needs to be a rank here.

"Slowly, the council have said no, you can't have a rank there, you have to use further ranks which are 200 metres away."

There is also a new rank roughly 50m from the theatre, but Saif says in both instances they are too far away from the prime spot considering pre booked taxis are still allowed to pick up and drop people off directly outside the theatre.

"Those ranks are too far because if tourists come to Bristol, they'll never find that rank because it's all the way down by the Cenotaph...it's not a place you find people go, it's like a ghost town there.

"The main attraction is the Hippodrome."

We spoke to Mayor Marvin Rees to get his reaction.

"The point is, it's been made clear to us that having a rank outside the Hippodrome is actually dangerous because the rank ends up backing up around the corner (up Park Street)," he said.

"That's been made clear to us as an authority. The police have made that point too as well as a number of other organisations.

"We've been through that discussion a number of times, we simply cannot put a rank in place that with the new road configuration brings risk like that."

Yesterday's protest caused severe traffic jams around the city centre with an ambulance caught on camera trapped amongst it.

Saif and the BBLTA have apologised for the disruption, with Mayor Rees urging them to work together to find a realistic solution.

"We've said, 'alright, we can't give you the perfect solution that you would wish for because of the situation that we're in, but this is what we can do to support the trade'," Marvin said.

"We can't get the best as you see it, so lets all work out what we can actually do, to do our best.

"If it's just simply about more signage or talking to the Hippodrome, putting it on their tickets to say, when you leave turn left it's just 50m if that, then we can do that, but lets focus on the solutions that are actually available to us rather than asking for something that's not available to us."

*The video report above was filmed during a previous protest in April 2021.

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