Shropshire taxi drivers urged to join police scheme over anti-social behaviour
Taxi drivers in Shropashire are being urged to sign up to a scheme to ban unruly customers as a Pubwatch scheme is expanded.
West Mercia Police wants to rid the county of anti-social behaviour in towns at night and make its centres safe and inviting places to be in the evening.
A new scheme, called Shropshire Against Night Time Disorder, is being rolled out to give those banned from pubs or town centres the chance to see their ban rescinded, if they attend a special course.
And in Oswestry the current Pubwatch will be revamped and relaunched later this month.
The idea is for taxi drivers in Shropshire to get involved in a bid to stop late-night disorder.
Police Inspector Rik Klair said the night-time culture had to change.
He said: "I want to see our towns vibrant, exciting places that people want to visit and enjoy in the evenings. We need to look at different ways to deal with the culture of anti-social behaviour and binge drinking."
He said the Oswestry Pubwatch Scheme was expected to be relaunched at the end of April, in time for the two May Bank Holiday weekends.
The town has continued to suffer from the stigma of being named an anti-social behaviour hot spot more than a decade ago, despite its award winning CCTV system helping to see crime and disorder plummet.
"Oswestry already has Pubwatch, but not all licensees are signed up," Inspector Klair said. "We are going to have a new radio scheme to keep publicans in touch with each other, with the CCTV control room and the police."
"We also want to bring our taxi firms on board. Taxi drivers can often be the subject of abuse from their customers at night, whether that is verbal abuse, anti-social behaviour or non-payment."
"If we can encourage the taxi drivers to agree that if someone is banned from one firm they will not be able to get a taxi from another, it will make customers think about their behaviour."
The Shropshire Against Night Time Disorder scheme has been created after a similar, successful scheme in Hereford.
"Anyone that is made subject to a banning order, whether from pubs, or a town centre or perhaps the taxis, will be given the chance to attend a new course," he said.
"In the same way that the speed awareness courses work, if they successfully pass the course then they will have their ban rescinded."
