Cabbies accuse PKC of rank effort on ‘glacier’

Dec 24 2010 by Denis Brown, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

ELDERLY shoppers could face potential peril when scrambling over ice to board taxis in Perth, drivers claimed yesterday.

Cabbies claim the glacial main daytime rank in South Street – mainly patronised by older fares – has not been cleared of snow or ice by Perth and Kinross Council (PKC) since the big chill set in late last month.

The end result, claims driver Henry Anderson, is a build-up of frozen snow-ploughed waste leaving frustrated drivers no choice but to park beyond bay lines.

Mr Anderson said a warden had warned drivers earlier this week that their protruding vehicles were obstructing traffic on the town’s busiest through-road.

And at least one elderly lady loaded with Christmas shopping slipped and fell trying to navigate safe passage.

“It’s a disgrace, a real safety issue,” he said.

“Our passengers at South Street are mainly retirees who use their free bus passes to get into town to do their shopping and then travel home in taxis with all their bags.

“If they don’t fancy struggling over ice to reach the driver’s side, their only option is to get in on the passenger side, which is equally dangerous as they’re exposed out on the road.”

Councillor Bob Band – a non rank using hire car operator – told the PA he agreed PKC should have cleared the rank as a matter of priority.

“Taxis are part of the public transport network and should have been given some priority when the council was clearing areas for bus access,” he said.

“They haven’t been put on the road priority list by council engineers, and I think they’re quite right, something needs to be done.”

But Cllr Band said PKC was facing an even bigger challenge clearing roads and pavements than last winter, describing persistent extreme conditions as exceptional.

“Yes it was bad last winter, but not to this level where everything remains frozen solid for weeks, even our snow ploughs can’t cope – the ice has been ripping bolts out of the ploughs,” he said.

“It’s a different ball game, we’ve never had conditions like this and in my time I’ve never seen so much snow frozen on the pavement.

“The problem is that our machines are not capable of shifting it.”

Illustrating that point, PKC – following a call about the rank issue from the PA – dispatched a mini-digger to clear the South Street rank, but to no avail.

“He left it worse than it was,” said Mr Anderson.

“He dug out two parking spaces before giving up and left a massive pile of ice in the middle of the rank, so now the cars have to go in and zig zag out again.”

A PKC spokesman said roadside pile-ups were caused by ploughs clearing roads earmarked as priorities.

“We could spend time removing snow piles at the sides of roads, but that would remove resources from areas where they are needed for snow removal,” he said.

“Keeping roads and footpaths clear has to be our priority.”