Contrary to the advice given to her by the professionals at the Council, or the advice given by myself, and contrary to the very strongly held views of the local residents, Tory Cabinet Member Councillor Mrs Maxine Callow has decided NOT to close the Bryan Road taxi rank at 7pm!
As noted in her 'Executive Decision'
here she didn't feel that closing the rank at 7pm was the best way of stopping the residents suffering noise and anti-social behaviour!
Needless to say, neither I, nor the residents were going to let this go without a fight! (I blush to tell you what sort of anti-social behaviour the residents have had to put up with (in addition to slamming doors, radios, engines runnings, queues up and down the street), but lets just say you wouldn't want it happening outside your house!). The residents spoke out, and I demanded an emergency meeting of the Council's Policy Committee - see the Blackpool Gazette Article
here. Unfortunately, when the meeting went ahead, EVERY SINGLE Tory member of the committee voted to kick out the concerns of the residents and myself, and to uphold the decision!
The Trees Residents Association will continue to fight this, and I have pledged my support - I understand they are going to be writing to David Cameron, and asking him if this is the sort of behaviour we can expect from the Tories if they ever manage to get into power nationally!