Town plan 'will ruin taxi business'

TAXI drivers say they will lose half of their town-centre business when the Tesco store closes as part of changes introduced under the Western Sector development.

The drivers already feel hard done by because a system is being phased in whereby they will need to replace private cars with Hackney carriages, or London-style black cabs. The cabs cost around £25,000 to buy and taxi drivers said the vehicles are not ideally suited to the hilly terrain of High Wycombe.

But the cabbies are set to suffer further problems since Tesco lost its High Court battle in July to keep the town centre branch.

Wycombe District Council is to compulsorily purchase the supermarket to make way for a new development, but the taxi drivers say they will lose almost half of their town centre trade which they currently get from the store.

Many say they intend to leave the job or retire before they have to buy a black cab but, for those continuing in the profession, life has been made even more difficult with the knowledge that they will lose so much of their established trade.

Mohammed Arif, 61, from Sussex Close, High Wycombe, said: 'We are losing nearly 50 per cent of our town-centre business because half of our taxi drivers use the Tesco taxi rank.

'It is a big trouble for us. How can we manage to buy black cabs when we are losing business when Tesco shuts?

'We are living hand-to-mouth to buy the cars at the moment and it is going to get worse. I am going to retire before I need a black cab.'

Aslam Mohammed, 55, said: 'I am normally working here in the High Street but my colleagues who work at Tesco are going to lose out.'

A spokesman for Wycombe District Council said: 'The approved plans for the Western Sector include the provision of a new taxi rank integrated with the relocated bus station close to the site of the proposed library.'

The council said they are about to issue eight new taxi licences and the new vehicles will need to be London-style black cabs.