Cutting space at city centre rank will lead to more queues, say taxi drivers

Taxi drivers fear cutting spaces at a city centre rank will lead to more queuing for old and disabled passengers.

Unite the Union objected to Glasgow City Council plans to relocate the taxi rank on Stockwell Street.

The move, which has been approved by the city’s licensing committee, is part of the Avenues programme to upgrade city centre streets.

At Stockwell Street, work includes installation of a two-way segregated cycle lane and widened footways.

A council official said a bus stop needs to be moved as a result of the project, meaning the taxi rank will be shortened. But drivers claim there has been a lack of consultation over the proposal, and say access will be reduced for those who rely on taxis.

There has been a taxi stance for four taxis on Stockwell Street between Stockwell Place and Osborne Street. There will now only be space for two.

The council is planning to install a camera focused on the two-vehicle rank and a monitor at a six-vehicle rank on Osborne Street so drivers can see when a space becomes available.

Seven objections to the change were received by Glasgow City Council, including from Unite the Union Glasgow Cab Section.

Michael Meehan, from Unite, said: “We don’t believe there is adequate equality assessment at that rank, reducing it two means there is going to be more queues for passengers, especially the old, frail and the disabled passengers.”

He added the union had “no records at our office of any consultation” and the planning stage had “gone through prior to the covid period”.

“The taxi service operates 24 hours a day, and it’s a door-to-door service. Buses finish generally speaking about 11pm,” Mr Meehan said.

“The idea of the Avenues project is to encourage people to use public transport. Taxis provide the door-to-door service that customers are going to need when there are fewer cars coming into the city.

“We need to have more taxi ranks, rather than less taxi ranks, because there are complaints at the moment that we can’t get enough taxis onto the ranks at the peak times.”

He said the council could get the design right with “a little bit of tweaking”.

Henry McKean, from the union, said it was “unfair” to reduce the capacity by 50% and would be detrimental to passengers trying to access taxis. Another objector argued the rank has been in place for years and is well known.

Another council official said the Avenue scheme had been in design for six to seven years. “Consultation has been carried out extensively throughout the design and development process of this particular Avenue scheme,” he added.

He said Unite had been included in contact lists and an equality impact assessment had been undertaken and was published in 2024/25.

Work on Stockwell Street was delayed by the Union Street fire, to help with traffic management, but is now under way.

The official said there would be cost implications and delays to construction if the taxi stance changes were not approved.