Taxi Driver sex 'ban'...

[DRiddle]

I know this was in The Mail but I wondered if others had noticed that it embarrassingly made the national news too.

http://news.sky.com/story/1221418/sex-for-taxi-fares-banned-in-hartlepool

Sky picked up the story and predictably we end up looking like even more of a joke town.

In a town long used to being the butt of jokes for hanging a shipwrecked monkey during the Napoleonic wars because they thought it was a French spy, female taxi passengers are unfazed.

Christine Short, 52, said she knows for a fact that taxi fares can be negotiated.

"I have known friends do it," she admitted.

"It's been ongoing for years, and if the drivers think they can get away with it, then so be it."

Why oh why did HBC go public with this? Why not just take the fellas license away discretely? Why not just leave it to the police for being a public decency issue or whatever?

This brings a whole new meaning to the idea of 'the vision' and Hartlepool being "Open for business".

[Hartlepudlion]

The more this Council embarrasses itself and the town surely more people will wake up to what a shambles this town is.

It needs new people to be given a chance.

[tankerville]

I was a full time hackney carriage driver for two well known firms in the town the cars had to be kept clean inside & out the driver had to dress in an appropriate way if you were scruffy or unshaven then H.B.C licencing officer made you leave the rank at once.

Drivers are asked for sexual favours when bringing night time patrons home from nightspots on a regular basis.

A far more serious issue now is Taxi Drivers have on record with H.B.C. THE FOLLOWING;

G.B.H. THEFT. BURGLARY. ASSAULT. CRIMINAL DAMAGE. PRISON SENTENCES. ATTEMPTED RAPE. etc. etc.

I find this far more disturbing than what has been going on for years and will continue so long as men are men and women continue to offer themselves as payment for a taxi fare.