Whoever suggested udale street for a taxi rank obviously has no idea that residents live on there. I dont know anyone who would be happy with a taxi rank outside their home. The taxi rank is fine where it is, the driving is the problem that needs to be addressed and this can be done easily without making residents lives hell!

@Albert

Have you ever needed a taxi at chucking out time? No, I thought not.

What a silly question.

@Eric - Quote: "The kerb on Jane St is no problem You regularly see 2 buses pass that way side by side, so any competent car driver should be able to manage it."

You're obviously basing your statement on theory rather than actual fact. Or you actually meant to say "two buses travelling in opposite directions" . . . ?

We're talking about the two lanes East-bound, i.e. along Janes Street heading for Washington Street

Cars wanting to turn left onto Washington Street can pass at this point **IF** the cars queuing to turn right onto Washington Street keep centrally in their lane. If they are towards the left of their lane i.e. nearside tyre touching the white line, it's a careful squeeze for a car. Buses have no chance.

If you have seen the bus I travel on, they tend to mount the kerb at this point, a fact which you may have missed from your viewpoint.

are all the taxi's needed at the same time, there is no need for them to be parked up on washington st, they all have radios so could be sent to the rank as and when required

Making a Taxi rank on Udale st (M&S) is not very fair on the few people who live on that street...i'm dam sure i wouldn't like a Taxi rank outside my house or would the people suggesting it!!!

@StanTheMan - £1.55 to Seaton? So get three of you in a taxi and it's actually slightly cheaper for the taxi. Plus you don't have to put up with the noisy, smelly, cold, damp, slow buses and the great British unwashed who use them.
I thank you.

who thought it would be a good idea to let taxis park in the pedestrian area where the shops are, sheer madness its a "pedestrian area" and keep it so!!!!

What about the road outside Marks and spencers? that is hardly used at night. and the car park next to ladies walk?

I have just come back from town and I looked at the layby on Jane street and it is already a taxi rank, after 11, but there were no taxis there!!!

Lets face it, bus users have to walk to the bus station to get home, whats wrong with moving all the taxis to a central location totally away from washington street? say Vulcans lane? then every one can walk there and get a taxi and the streets will be safe for us pedestrians and other road users!!

In the cities, taxis are much better regulated and have to park properly, and there are much better bus services. And the council should charge taxis to use the ranks, get a bit of cash in for paying for later buses, which are much cheaper and better for the enviroment!! (Have you seen how much a taxi charges to go to seaton? it's only £1.55 on a bus!!! I'd rather walk than line the pockets of someone who cant park properly! At least you know the bus drivers are properly trained!!)

Yeah, yeoman, I agree. And it's not just workington, whitehaven is as bad. the total disregard taxi drivers show for the law is staggering. I have seen drivers parked right across zigzags on crossings, round blind corners on the wrong side of the road, double parked with other taxis and blocking the bus stop on tangier street totally, forcing a wheelchair user on a bus to have to get off at duke street and make their way back.
And only today, i saw a taxi driver in workington stop on murray road, right across the entrance to the bus station, totally blocking it and stopping a bus from entering, while he dropped off a passenger. then he gave the bus driver a V sign for being there and stoppin him reversing, before performing an illegal u-turn and driving back onto oxford street at speed.

I regularly use the layby bus stop on JAne st, and if anyone cares to look, it actually says that it is a taxi rank from 11pm to 7am. Several drivers of the 11.05pm Moorclose bus refuse to pick up there because it would be illegal for them to stop, but I have never seen a taxi use it, only people getting kebabs from sadies.
perhaps taxi drivers are to greedy to park there in case all the punters go to washington st?
Police should enforce the laws that are being broken more heavily, then maybe these taxi drivers would think twice about breaking the law and endangering the public!

If taxi drivers read the highway code they wouldn't get tickets, simple.

The rank on Washington street ISN'T working. The taxis obstruct the bus stop and make it dangerous for bus passengers to alight, often forcing the driver to take them to the bus station, the next legal stop, for them to walk back to Washington St. And the harm in parking back across he lights and crossing is because it is ILLEGAL because of the road markings, and dangerously obstructive to buses and lorries (and yes, they DO operate until midnight or later) wanting to turn left from Ramsey Brow.

The layby opposite Grahams Travel on Jane St IS a taxi rank. Look at the signage. Taxis only from 11 pm to 7am. And I have NEVER seen a taxi use it.
The kerb on Jane St is no problem You regularly see 2 buses pass that way side by side, so any competent car driver should be able to manage it.

And yes, Yeoman, taxis parking on Murray Road, and also Oxford St, outside Wetherspoon's, are a danger to vehicles and pedestrians alike. I agree, there are far too many taxis on the road. Perhaps Allerdale should adopt a policy of only licencing as many taxis as they have room for on the available ranks? This would solve the problem. And perhaps taxi drivers should sit a PCV test like bus drivers do, and have regular CPC training the same as HGV and bus drivers and be subject to the same rules on driving hours. They do, after all, claim to be professional drivers. Perhaps they should start behaving as such?

There would be adequate room for an evenings-only rank on the road that runs next to Butterflies tea room and M&S, this would be close enough to Washington St to keep everybody happy.