East Sussex taxi services in 'diabolical state' with people regularly waiting more than a hour for a cab

Earlier this month, Lewes District Council revealed that 44 per cent of taxi users said they had waited more than an hour for a cab.

Nicola Taylor, a resident in Seaford, told SussexWorld that she is regularly left waiting for more than one hour to get a ride home from work or social events.

She said: "I worked a night shift and stayed on until 3pm the following day. I then went round my friend's house and had a drink, so was not going to drive home. I tried to get a taxi at 6ish and nothing was available.

"I tried five different companies and it took an hour to get a reply. I’ve had a number of problems with this over the last couple of months. I went out on a Friday night a couple of weeks ago and there was no taxis available for an hour and a half.

"For people that require taxi’s because they can’t drive for health reasons, they are in real trouble. Some people are bound by taxis. In the event of someone that needs to get to a hospital, but can’t get hold of an ambulance, the only way they can get there is via taxi.

"People could be dying in there homes because of this. It’s having a major impact on the whole country.”

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Candy Wells, the owner of Beacon Taxis, claims that Lewes District Council's rules and regulations for traditional taxi drivers has led to mass numbers leaving firms and becoming Private Hire drivers for companies such as Uber.

Candy explained: “It’s so diabolical. My drivers are dwindling. I get abuse on a daily basis from the public because I cannot send them a taxi for one reason or another. I’m fed up saying no to them all the time.

“The Lewes District Council licensing officer opened the back door for all these drivers to get their private hire badge. We now have six or seven hundred private hire drivers, when before we only had a handful.

“All these drivers are now working out of Brighton and not helping us with the customers that we have.

“That’s the crux of the problem. They don’t have to pass any stringent test, like Hackney drivers need to. You can just go with your divers licence and get your private hire badge. Once you have that badge you can work anywhere in the country.

"The council are giving us so many rules and regulations that we need to follow that we never needed to before."

A spokesperson for the district council said it was proposing to make changes to its Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Guidance, following feedback from residents and those in the trade.

They added: “We urge people to read about the changes and take part in the consultation.”

To view the council’s consultation on taxi services click here.