Taxi drivers to boycott Christmas (From Wiltshire Times)

Taxi drivers to boycott Christmas

11:08am Friday 9th December 2005 in Corsham By David Giles

TAXI drivers plan to boycott the busy Christmas and New Year's Eve runs after a recent wave of violent attacks on cabbies.

On Saturday, Paul Turner, 62, the owner of Box Cars, was attacked in the street outside his home.

He is now scared to drive his cab at night and is refusing to pick up customers from pubs over the Christmas period.

Other taxi drivers in Corsham have joined forces and plan to boycott pub runs over Christmas and New Year after an increase in violence.

Last week father-of-five Stuart Starr suffered cracked ribs, a broken nose and severe bruising after he was attacked near Rode, near Trowbridge. On the same night teenage louts launched a vicious bottle assault on Cameron Scott as he drove his cab in Melksham.

Now Mr Turner, who lives in Box, said he and other cab drivers would boycott the busy holiday period through fears of more violence.

He said: "There is far too much of it at the moment.

"I won't be picking up from pubs or clubs during the week between Christmas and New Year.

"There are other taxi drivers I know that are doing the same because of the risk of being beaten up.

"Since I was attacked I am very nervous about going out while it is dark."

Mr Turner said he was dropping some shopping off for his mother on Saturday morning when he asked someone who was blocking his path to move.

He said the man hurled abuse at him and then punched him in the face.

Mr Turner said it was the second time he had been attacked while driving his cab.

In 1985 a drunken lout hit him over the head with a bottle while he was driving home from a Corsham nightclub.

"We don't want to have partitions like drivers do in Bristol and other cities," he said.

"But people have to be aware we are doing them a service.

"If it continues taxi drivers will say they have had enough and refuse to take these people home at night.

"I am too old and vulnerable to be getting attacked so it's just not worth it."

Nick Pearce, 55, who owns Nick's Taxis based in Corsham, said for the first time in 15 years he was staying at home on New Year's Eve.

"I wish them a happy walk home on that night. There is just too much violence and vomit at the moment.

"We do a lot of business with locals but over the New Year you get a lot of strangers and you never know what you are going to get.

"A couple of weeks ago I gave someone a lift home and he gave me all the money in his pockets, which drunk people often do. When I told him there was too much he became aggressive."

A police spokesman said a 60-year-old man from Southwick had been arrested on suspicion of actual bodily harm on Paul Turner and was released on police bail. He has to report back to police on January 12.

• A FIFTEEN-year-old boy is due to appear before Bristol Crown Court today charged with robbery and grievous bodily harm in connection with an attack on Trowbridge taxi driver Stuart Starr on November 25.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and Liam Corkish, 34, both from the London area, pleaded not guilty to GBH and robbery before magistrates in Bath on Monday.