After the police slapped a section 14 on the Demo at the Bank, organisers decided to throw a curve ball in retaliation to the 30 minute restriction and changed the venue for day 3 to Parliament Square.
The Met Police had already put into operation restriction around the Bank Junction and were left red faced as no one turned up. At first they thought they had beaten the protesters but it soon became clear, the boot was on the other foot.
Westminster was gridlocked for best part of an hour till the traffic police turned up. They then made a catastrophic mistake in funnelling the Taxis over Westminster Bridge which unbeknown to them added the procession of taxes to their preordained second target... the Waterloo IMAX round about.
Waterloo bridge soon became gridlocked along with Westminster. York Road was proper engines off and north of the river the Aldwych tailed back into the City's square mile.
Again traffic cops turned up and tried to disperse the protesters by waving them back across Waterloo bridge.
The convoy then moved on to the third venue, again hitting the Rotunda at London Wall before the signal was given to disperse for the day.
Then came the bully boy tactics. As they had been given the run around, some Met officers were telling drivers "you are being filmed, and if you are filmed in multiple locations tomorrow, TfL will prosecute you".
This is a ridiculous statement as this is exactly what Taxi drivers do....they ply their trade in multiple locations every day... this scaremongering doesn't hold water, and (so I'm told) today, the fight goes on.
On the City Police Website last night, they said:
"Conditions for the Taxi demos are in place to limit the disruption across London and to ensure emergency vehicles can access all routes."
So far, they haven't issued a new section 14 limiting the time of assembly.
The ITA Twitter account have broken their silence tonight to confirm Demo will take place at Bank Junction at 3pm on the dot.
Tanni Grey Thompsom says sh will raise this issue on behalf of disabled passengers.
Editorial Comment :
It is now widely believed that the proposed ban traffic at the Bank Junction has a hidden agenda and is not to make the junction safer.
Safety has nothing to do with the restrictions, if that were the case, then Buses and Cyclist would have been banned.
It's alleged this experiment is being forced on London to facilitate the movement of construction trucks and heavy plant, while work takes place as two massive skyscrapers are being erected.
It's also alleged, heavy plant and lorries are to be issued permits, enabling them to use the Junction while other traffic apart from buses and bikes will be excluded.
So far, the demos have been an overwhelming success. Taxi Leaks has been informed that further action is being planned to continue in to the next couple of weeks.
WHATS IT ALL ABOUT ? WHY HAVE THE ITA CALLED FOR A DEMO ?
6 comments:
Good stuff. I heard a rumour of a booking for a couple of taxis tomorrow somewhere. The problem is that with the ever increasing number of fake taxis stealing jobs, all the legit cabs are fighting to get to the same jobs at once. Causes havoc with the traffic flow. Meetings might even of happened to discuss ways to harass honest taxi drivers earlier to negate that havoc. Looks like they haven't worked out the obvious solution yet. When people have to lie and cheat, it only demonstrates their desperation. Stand firm, it is (just) beginning (to work).
simultaneous, multiple locations, should be the order of the day
this will make it harder for plod & tie-up more, of them
and would also help, with drivers being in other areas, having to lose less downtime, driving to where the demo is
we might find many more drivers wishing to join in, if they could join a demo, taking place, near where they happen to be
Looks like the lorries leaving said construction sites will have to be slowed tight down by rolling ply for hire every day then....
As a subscriber to a trade org, I am disgusted that my org as well as all the others have not supported this action.
We are now looking at day 4, and drivers from all over the trade are turning up yet their trade leaders cower away.
These demos have not been about personalities, there have been no tweets asking for drivers to sign up as members, this is about survival of the trade. No emotional speeches calling us comrades and brothers. These demos are purely driver led.
Not one tweet of support from any org, and the drivers have noticed this. If someone offers a legal scheme with no trade org affiliation, I believe we will start to see current members deleting their direct debits in droves.
Our trade leaders should hang their heads in shame.
Soon they will be calling for support but many drivers will be rethinking their association with orgs who visibly have their own agendas.
Great post Gerald. I threw my toys out the pram earlier this week and vowed I wouldn't attend another trade demo unless I was convinced that ALL the trade leaders would attend also. If they couldn't be bothered, then neither could I.
But after sleeping on it I thought, well I may as well say goodbye to my badge now, as this will never happen.
This trade is currently led and firing by fear, worry and passion, not trade org membership.
We need a PROPER leader, a leader with heart, a leader with spunk and a leader who can cast fear in challenge and attack.
Cometh the hour, cometh the the man.
Semtex.
It is imperative that we win the information war as city workers just think we are moaning about Uber again.I know there is a blackout on our demo at Bank by mainstream media but we have to get the message out to people that the Bank demo is about access & that's all.They will back us in this fight but they are completely unaware of the proposals to exclude Licensed Taxis from Bank.
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