Blue Badge

I see that down in the city of Manchester some cars have been impounded and the owners prosecuted for using fake blue disabled parking badges.(for overseas readers these badges allow parking on yellow lines for up to three hours).
 From what I see and hear every day on the streets of Barrow you don't need to fake a badge, it seems you get one even if it's your aunt's friend's sister in law that is suffering with an ingrown toenail. The town centre is littered with cars all badly parked using these badges as an excuse for their laziness and tightfistedness. 
I have watched these drivers park on yellow lines right next to a pay and display car park, and then stride several hundred yards across the car park to get to the shops, and even on occasion seen them run back for their forgotten walking stick. 
I had to double park and block traffic for a while today, as I helped my passenger a genuinely disabled lady into a shop. On the way back to the car I noticed that one of the cars blocking access was displaying a blue badge, but it was a large estate car filled with the tools and cable used by an electrician. 
There are obviously genuine users of blue badges but a large proportion are definitely taking the mickey. 

Dumbphones

When someone seems to be talking to me from the seat directly behind nowadays, I have learnt not to answer straight away. 
This is after a couple of embarrassing incidents when I have answered them only to realise that they were actually talking to someone on their mobile phones and not actually to me. 
This mainly happens when they have the phone set to silent or vibrate mode and they then get a call, or they suddenly decide they desperately need to call someone right away and it cant wait a few minutes till I drop them off.
 Mobile phones to me can be very anti-social things, many times I have had three or four passengers in the taxi and instead of talking to each other they are all talking and texting to other people on their smartphones.
And I really really hate it when children are asking mum questions or trying to talk about their day and the mum completely ignores them because they have to urgently  update facebook or text back to some rubbish on messenger!
  The other anti-social thing that winds me up is when they get in the taxi wearing earphones and then turn the music down to tell you where they are going and then turn it right up to the max again for the rest of the journey.
 Some folk have it that loud that that I can hear the music louder than the car radio, that surely must be damaging these antisocial music fanatics hearing in some way.

Nee Naw

I was a bit curious when I spotted this car sporting the words N.W Blood Bikes.

I mean blood and bikes could mean any number of things to a lot of people eh?

So of course I googled it and the website tells me that they" provide a voluntary out of hours transport service to our local hospitals by carrying urgent and emergency blood, blood derivatives, samples, donor breast milk for premature babies, Doctors notes, and theatre equipment, in fact anything that can be carried by motorcycle, between hospitals.

We provide this service through the night, at weekends and Bank Holidays enabling hospital funding to be better spent on patient care."

Mmm I thought that sounds familiar, isn't that exactly what we as a local taxi service do every day of the year 24 hours a day. Of course we charge for our services but that's part of what we do for our living. Why do these seemingly charity minded bikers want to steal the bread from our table?

Is it because they want to help out the poor old cash strapped National Health Service?

Mmm maybe so but aren't they inadvertently helping to downgrade that very service into a charity aided shadow to the private health industry?

I have just heard recently that our area here in Furness has had a reduction in emergency ambulance cover down from five units to two. Oh but don't worry if anything major happens we can rely on the air ambulance helicopter to help. 

Mmm but wait a minute isn't that charity funded as well?  

What next: sponsor's names on staff uniforms and collection boxes in casualty maybe?

We should remember that we all pay towards the NHS and we shouldn't be helping to dismantle it.

But maybe the truth is that these guys may have the best of intentions but being blunt they could be seen as macho weekend warriors playing at being an emergency service rider.

Nee Naw Nee Naww eh!

X-FACTOR

Lately Saturday nights have been turning out to be a little bit on the quiet side, so what’s going on? Is it the so called credit crunch or even as some believe the start of a full blown recession. Well I don't think so myself I put the blame fairly and squarely on ITV. They are stealing the peak Saturday night trade away from the pubs and clubs and more importantly from the taxi trade. Saturday night from 8pm until 11pm is dominated by that popular cult TV show the X-Factor. Why I don't know because I don't watch it, but on Saturday night it dominated the conversation of the fares I picked up, some of whom were actually going to X-Factor parties. What that involves, I don't have a clue but it sure seems popular. Even worse news was told to me by one fan that was dashing between two x-factor parties; apparently the series lasts right up until near Christmas. Why can't these TV companies be made to show this stuff during the week instead of wrecking the whole country’s night time economy?

One interesting snippet that I did get told on Saturday night from a reliable source fascinated me no end. The new club which is due to open shortly, CLUB-M has been fitted with a new entrance solely for the use of the local emergency services. This I am told is so paramedics can attend to injured or ill folk and cops can remove troublemakers all without going through the crowded club. But the best bit is that the club has actually got its own padded cells to detain folk and prevent them from injuring themselves or others. The polite name they tell me is the detention or holding area. But a cell is a cell to me and I wonder is it legal, can they actually detain someone against their will? Would it not be false imprisonment, is it a step too far?

Hard Life

For the last week or so I have been doing an occasional job transporting Russian sailors to and from the airport.

 The lucky ones were going home on leave from coasters carrying cargo into Barrow docks. Most are nice enough guys, but only speak as much English as I do Russian, and so the conversation is a bit limited. The one universally known word among them is "smoke," I have never known a Russian who doesn't smoke and so when I turn into the first service station on route and say the magic word it always brings on a big smile and" OK da." The replacement sailors I take to join the ships always look a bit glum and when I picked up one who spoke a fair bit of English, I learnt why.

I like a lot of folk had the false notion that these seafarers had the life of riley, seeing the world and meeting a new girl in every port. But no apparently I couldn't have been more wrong, he told me that most sign up for a six month contract and when they join the rest of the small crew on the vessel, that's it for the full six months they just never leave the ship. All of these vessels are registered under flags of convenience and so the minimum wage and health and safety rules just don't apply to these poor guys.

Since it is the first time inland in the UK for most of them I like to try and show them round our area if I get the chance. As well as many other local delights they get pointed out Dalton Wildlife Park and our spectacular Furness Abbey.

When I explained to the Russian sailor who spoke some English that the huge DDH shed was where nuclear submarines were built he pointed out that a few years back I would have been called a traitor and he would have been jailed as a spy.

On Friday night the Russian I collected from his ship was happy be going home but as it was 1: am and pitch black I wasn't able to point out our local landmarks. But as compensation I decided to drive him out of town by going past our local nightclubs and bars. As soon as we turned towards Barrow’s infamous Caza strip his mouth dropped open in amazement as he was confronted with the sight of hundreds of scantily clad young lasses. Two or three were lying on the pavement, legs akimbo and a few were happily vomiting the night away.

 A bit further up the street police struggled to break up a fight and the back doors of the police van were flung open ready to transport that nights bed and breakfast guests.

The sailor could speak a little English and he asked if Barrow was a big city and what was the population. When I told him “maybe sixty thousand” he laughed and replied “da and maybe ten thousand drunks, yes”

Teen Racers

After watching yet another near pile-up involving one our local teen racers today, I really do think it's time for a rethink.

 Nowadays you just can't deny the fact that the roads are far busier and much more dangerous than ever before. In most cases seventeen is too young of an age to be let loose with a loaded weapon like a souped up car. Modern cars are much faster and more powerful than at any time ever before and I for one think that they shouldn't be used as kids toys.

 Far too many kiddie winkles are tearing around the town like lunatics in high performance cars foolishly financed by credit happy parents hoping to keep up with the Joneses.

 The depressing annual death toll can only be reduced by changing the law to reflect the clear fact that teenagers are far more likely to die in a car accident than any other way.

 In my opinion teens should be limited to unmodified restricted performance cars. And since most fatal teen accidents tend to happen at night and involve cars carrying more than three passengers lets change the law to restrict teens to carrying only one passenger after 9pm.

Mrs Moneyprice.

One particular fare that I pick up now and again always drives me to distraction, I call her Mrs Moneyprice. 

Her voice is akin to the dentists drill and she doesn't pause to draw breath from the minute she gets in until the merciful moment she gets out again. Without any explanation or preamble she will start to list exactly what she has bought and is going to splash out on that week.

 Every item is then given its price tag right down to the exact penny, and comments added like "it was the dearest they had” or "I don't do cheap you know." A week or two back she even went into great detail about her new super pricey designer underwear which she then went on to say "was a waste of money because she wouldn't wear it." This was far too much information for a shy sensitive soul like me and I very nearly blushed, but thankfully she quickly moved on to the price of her new designer handbag.

 By the time we reached her house the figures must have racked up to many thousands and my poor head was spinning. As she got out of the cab, even though I had not gotten a word in edgeways she said “Thanks for the chat" but before I could let out a sigh of relief she leaned back in the car and started pointing at her garden and telling me the price of every plant and adornment in sight.

Ticket Blitz

Barrows traffic wardens, whoops sorry mustn't call them that now; they tell me that they are now known as civil enforcement officers started September with a Monday morning ticket blitz. 

The many cars left for weeks at a time with for sale signs on display, that have been parked on Barrow's Roose Rd and Abbey Rd were all ticketed in one early morning swoop. What a bonanza that must have been for the town hall bank balance, maybe we will all get a rate reduction now eh?

 But the long overdue crackdown seems to have worked on the towns would be Arthur Daley’s because on Tuesday morning not a single dodgy car for sale could be found on the streets of Barrow.

Maybe we could get the towns roving civil enforcement officers to check on the ever increasing hordes of traffic lights we now have here in Barrow. For weeks at a time several sets of lights have had faults with bulbs broken or blown leaving some with only one lonely green light left. Perhaps the county council in the far north has decided that they could save some cash by unadopting some of Barrow’s roads.

 They have made a start by tarring over Schneider roads pedestrian crossings and road markings why not just let the towns traffic lights go out one by one and save a few bob on the electric as well eh? Or is it that we have had so many traffic lights installed here lately that the worlds supply of bulbs has been exhausted.

The Boat People

The Roa Island Wreck sitting next to the causeway near Foulney Island has become a familiar landmark to most folk round here for a few years now. Being near to the home of local TV star Dave Myers, it even made national television looking picturesque in the background of the new Hairy Bikers series the Hairy Bakers. I had noticed the rusty 70 foot former fishing trawler moving about during violent storms and always half expected to find the rusty hulk sitting astride the road to Roa Island at some point. A year or so back though I heard a rumour that the boat wreck had been sold, and started to look out for the scrap men towing her away or cutting her up where she lay. Next time I drove past her, I was so shocked that I nearly drove off the causeway and into the channel, some crazy guy was actually attempting to scrape away the thick layers of rust and paint her.

A week or two later and the rumours started to get even more bizarre, with tales of folk actually living on the marooned wreck. Asking around over the months I could only find scraps of information about the mysterious boat people, just who were these crazy folk? Strangely the answers come about when I happened to mention it to a fare that we pick up regularly from the Roa area. It's me said Helen straight away," along with my Partner Scott and daughter Saff."

I was shocked surely not, here was a perfectly sane respectable lady telling me that she lived aboard a ship wreck with no mains water supply, electricity, rubbish collection, phone line or postal address. But hey wait a minute, that also means no bills or rates to pay and with the added bonus that no one can find you. Helen tells me that they had been running pubs for the last ten years and had gotten heartily sick of the rat race. The boat is to be a five year project eventually morphing into a permanent house boat moored at a place yet to be decided. You really do have to admire the sheer guts and determination of this family, remember that life has to revolve around the high tides and if you don't get home in time, then you are stranded ashore. All the supplies you need for day to day living you will have to carry over the rocky muddy beach and up the steep ladder onto the boat. I really sincerely do wish them the very best of luck with this slightly crazy venture and hope that local folk will take them to heart and help out where possible. After all that's what us Furness folk are famous for. "What's the boats name? “You may well ask, and when you learn it and its translation then somehow it seems very apt. The trawlers name throughout its long hard working life has been the “VITA NOVA" which means fittingly "NEW LIFE."

Read Helen's blog at vitanovaroaisland.blogspot.com

Read the Vita Nova story at www.vitanova.me.co.uk

Official Vandals

I see that the vandals from way up north of Cumbria have had their annual spree of mayhem and destruction. Yep it's that time of the year again, and we the poor ratepayer have to pay for the doubtful privilege of Carlisle contractors spaying our roads with black sticky tar and then gleefully throwing truckloads of paint chipping stones and dust in all the wrong places. The boys have excelled themselves this year, particularly on Barrow's Schneider Rd which has been transformed from quite a decent stretch of road into a dusty hazardous disaster area. Impressive clouds of dust recreate scenes from hundreds of years ago making the road look like some sort of rural dirt farm track. To add to the authenticity of the scene all modern road markings have been obliterated including the green cycle tracks for which we paid many tens of thousands of pounds to be laid. 

Snails in Morocco

Well Morocco certainly turned out to be a bit of a culture shock in more ways than one.

 Firstly to witness the poverty and hardship which is endured by most Moroccans with a smile is a humbling experience. Some rural folk out in the desert still live as they did in biblical times, eking out a meagre living with herds of goats and making the trek to the distant water well by donkey. Looking out the window at the pouring down rain, which everyone has been moaning about here in Barrow is a stark contrast to a country where a lot of children have never even seen rain, the last decent downpour was nine years ago!

 Then at the other end of the scale we were told of an Arab multi billionaire who was spending tens of millions to move a giant cement factory, lock stock and barrel, ten miles up the road just because it spoils the view from his newly constructed huge luxury palace.

 Wondering down the beach promenade at night was at first a bit daunting even at one or two o-clock in the morning crowds of twenty or thirty thousand local folks were wondering about. After a while we noticed that most people were in family groups ranging from grandma down to young babes, all simply enjoying themselves. The very idea of even one family walking about late at night like this in Barrow town centre particularly down our infamous Gaza Strip just doesn't bear thinking about.

 What makes the big difference of course is that even though it is available most locals just don't touch alcohol. It really is refreshing to walk down the street at night and not have to dodge the pools of vomit and suffer the intimidating behavior of aggressive drunks.

 Walking down the prom on the last night I spotted something which brought back distant memories of trips to Walney beach and gathering winkles. A street vendor was selling freshly cooked bowls of the delicacy complete with the obligatory pin to tease them from the shells. After eating a half dozen or so it finally dawned on me that they weren't winkles at all, just common garden snails cooked in brine. The missus always said I would eat owt. I guess she is right.

Witless Wellie

All weekend I had been asking my fares if they had heard anything about or been to Barrow's big outdoor music festival "Furnessfest" Strangely no one seemed to have heard a thing about it maybe I was asking the wrong people. 
Finally on Sunday morning I got a job to pick up a fare from the huge festival site on Rakesmoor Lane. The fare was a young fella who looked like he had gotten drunk and slept in a windy field all night, which of course was exactly what he had done. But as for finding out about how the event was going, I might as well of asked one of the nearby trees.
 I should have known when I noticed that the typical muddy festival wellies he wore were on the wrong feet. 
The conversation went like this; firstly I asked "was it busy in there then, plenty of people then?" Fare "Err don’t know really." Me "was the music good then?" Fare, frowning and looking like he was thinking hard “Music, Mmm music eh, err don’t know really." Me "so did you have a good time then?" The Fare, predictably answered "don’t know really." And when I finally asked him if the beer tent was OK he smiled slightly and said “don’t know really, we took our own”

Mystery M

For the last few weeks or so mysterious red stickers have been appearing on lampposts, windows and buildings etc the length and breadth of Barrow. The stickers consist of a red background and a curious white design which looks like the letter M scrawled by a drunk.

But finally I have gotten to the bottom of the mystery stickers; a source in the local nightclub scene has given me the low-down. He tells me that the long closed Martinis night club on Barrow's notorious Gaza Strip is undergoing a massive revamp and will open shortly in a new guise as Club- M. So the sticker campaign is a form of cheap and cheeky advertising campaign, 

I say cheeky because they have also been sneakily slapping them all over rival night clubs and bars.

The other sign which has appeared along the length of Barrow's Abbey road tells us that major road works are about to begin. I believe that bit and I believe the bit that tells us to expect long delays. But I really am having a hard time swallowing the outrageous claim that the road works will only last for ten weeks. Long suffering local motorists know for a fact that this optimistic claim is stretching credibility. We all know from the previous history of many similar signs that have appeared on our over excavated roads that this is nowt but a fairy story, with not a happy ending in sight.

Electric Taxi

The first electric powered taxi has been launched by Glasgow based Allied Vehicles which builds thousands of taxis each year, the new E7 taxi.

The electric taxi will be available from October 2008 and is the result of three years research and development by Allied, which is already looking for local authority partners to install recharging networks locally to help drive down urban emissions.

However, a recent snub by Transport for London’s taxi licensing division, the Public Carriage Office, means the UK’s first zero emission taxi will not be appearing on the capital’s streets anytime soon.

The E7 is powered entirely by cutting edge Lithium-ion batteries. These give the electric E7 a range of up to 100 miles from a single charge and a top speed of 60mph.

Producing no carbon, particulates or other pollutant emissions, the E7 is eligible for a 100% discount from vehicle excise duty, as well as lower daily running costs.

With rising fuel prices an increasing problem for taxi drivers, the electric E7 is cheaper to run than a traditional black cab. Allied’s confidence in the technology is underlined with batteries featuring a six-year warranty and the base vehicle boasting a two-year unlimited mileage Peugeot warranty.

The electric E7 also provides full wheelchair access. Thanks to its large rear-passenger area wheelchair users can enter the vehicle more easily and be turned into the correct position for travel, before being secured safely with high-quality wheelchair restraints and passenger seat belts.

“We’ve had a positive response to electric vehicles from many local authorities, both in the UK and in Europe. However it’s a shame that London looks set to miss out, especially since its famous taxi fleet is currently responsible for 4% of all emissions in the capital,” he added.

The E7 will cost £39,450. To put this into perspective, a London style black taxi based on a TX4 silver automatic is in the region of £35,455 on the road.
Sounds OK until you look at the mileage between recharges, myself and most drivers I know do a lot more then a measly 100 miles in a day. Plus in reality the top speed of 60MPH would feel like you were going backwards on the motorway. Nope come back when they can do 250miles and 80MPH and then maybe there would be some interest.

Another Tin Shed

Now that Barrow's Mall frontage has been completed after its thirty year overdue renovation I have been asking my fares what they think of the new look. The vast majority like me think it’s a cheap and nasty bodge up. Comments from my fares include “It doesn't go with the red brick and sandstone of the surrounding buildings" and "It looks like a giant washing machine or fridge" or "It's just been covered with cheap and tacky white tin sheets."

 I suppose anything is an improvement over what went before but Barrow folk deserve better than yet another tin shed, we seem to have cornered the market with those already. What makes it look even worse is the nasty splodge of badly laid cheap tarmac masquerading as a pavement outside the front.

Phoney Nee-Naw

Over the last few weekends it seems that we have had a lot more blaring sirens and blue flashing lights than usual.

 Has a crazy fire bug been at work or have Barrovians turned into clumsy klutzes constantly injuring themselves? 

 Nope I don’t so, especially not since I saw that the vans being driven at breakneck speed through the busy streets of Barrow aren't actually bona-fide emergency vehicles.

 But still the laughing drivers seemed to be having the time of their life’s charging through red lights and ignoring all the normal rules of the road. From what I have since been told, it seems that Barrow’s streets are being used as some sort of training ground for would be emergency services drivers.

 We all know that these guys have to practice to gain the necessary skills but a little advance warning would have been nice. After watching the way some drivers react when they hear a siren coming up from behind them it could end up needing the real emergency services, to deal with the heart attacks caused.

Too Pink?

A local Barrow taxi driver has had a serious complaint made about her car. She was told to take it to the Town Hall where the evidence was photographed for a decision to be made by council licensing officers. Pretty serious stuff huh! But what was the complaint, which was made anonymously direct to the Town Hall by someone all about, to justify being taken this seriously? Was the car filthy or smelly or worse still, in a dangerous condition? Were the tyres bald or the steering faulty; did a spring from the upholstery pierce some passengers butt? Well surprisingly it was none of those. The person had complained because the taxi was in their opinion TOO PINK! What sort of miserable sad sack would go to the trouble of writing and complaining that a taxi was TOO PINK? Maybe someone with way too much time on their hands or maybe some macho type guy who didn't like the idea of riding in it because it would make him unsure of his own masculinity. The taxi in question has been personalized by one of our lady drivers, who has a soft spot for the Pink Panther cartoon character. Pink accessories inside include a steering wheel cover, seat belt protectors and furry dice. Most folk wouldn't find it over the top or too garish in any way and lots of her fares, especially the young and the young at heart love to ride in the Pink Panther.
We drivers spend the majority of the day in our taxis and some like to add the odd personal touch to the cab to brighten up the place and make it feel more homely. In my opinion anyone who can seriously object to this must surely have big problems in their own sad grey little lives.

Revenue Raiser

I’m quite surprised that our local council here in Barrow haven’t cottoned on to the crafty idea that the London borough of Barnet has introduced. They have made it a bye-law that any car owner who advertises their car for sale in a public parking place is fined £100.

After all we must have hundreds of cars for sale littering certain roads in Barrow, what a money-spinner that would be at £100 a time.

I can see both sides of the argument, “for” being the fact that the vast majority of the cars offered for sale are actually owned by fly by night dodgy car dealers, and folk lose their parking spaces when these cars are dumped for days on end outside their doors. “Against” is the for sale sign in a car window any different than sign writing on a van, driving instructors car or even a taxi come to think of it?

Barnet council say the rule was introduced to keep parking space free for residents. A spokesman said: 'New parking contravention codes were introduced on April 4, 2007. 'A new code was introduced with the description of "using a vehicle in a parking place in connection with the sale or offering for sale or exposing for sale the goods when prohibited".

Whose First?

This is just some of the taxi's waiting for a fare at Beijing Airport. Looks like a heartbreaking job to me, this is only the queue for terminal three.

One Way Near Misses

Just when I thought that folk had begrudgingly gotten used to Barrow's detested new one way system, I had two near misses in the one morning. Luckily it was nice and quiet, it being a Sunday morning but nevertheless both were enough to put the wind up me.

Both near misses happened in nearly exactly the same place, just before the Hollywood Park roundabout outside the Wheatsheaf pub.

The first was when I was met head on by an ould lass charging the wrong way up the road towards me at a fair lick of speed. I braked hard and put my hazard lights on, expecting her to stop.

But no she shook her fist at me and waved at me to get out of her way.

When I didn't move she actually drove round me and drove on frightening the life out of five or six other hapless drivers. I heard no bangs and so I can only guess that she made it safely through till the road goes two way again.

The next was an hour or so later and this time it was a huge 4x4 again heading into the oncoming traffic. He was stopped by the driver of the car in front of me, who told him the road was one way.

Amazingly I heard him reply that he" knew that the road was one way, but that he was turning off at the Wheatsheaf" and that he "didn't want to go all the way round the one way system to get to it." Both don't realise how lucky they are, this section of road being two lanes wide is now treated as a dual carriageway by a lot of drivers, with speeds of 50mph plus being the norm for some eager beavers.