Leeds Festival organisers have denied suggestions they’ve given Uber “priority” space over private hire and hackney carriage vehicles at this year’s event.
Separate ranks for private hire vehicles, Ubers and hackney carriages will sit alongside one another an “equal” distance away from where the event is being staged, organisers confirmed on Tuesday. But local councillors have suggested hackney carriages, which pick up passengers without prior bookings, should be allowed to operate closer to the festival than Ubers, to make life easier for revellers leaving the event.
Speaking at a council licensing committee meeting on Tuesday, where arrangements for Leeds Festival were discussed, Labour councillor Lisa Martin said she’d been “led to believe” Uber had been given a priority position, at the expense of other types of pick-up vehicles.
But Lisa Kinsella, from organisers Festival Republic, explained: “They (the vehicles) all go inside one gate and it’s separated into a taxi rank for hackney carriages, there’s a pen for Uber – which aren’t given priority, it’s simply a separate area for anyone who’s booked an Uber – and then there’s a private hire area as well. The three areas are all next to each other and they’ll use the same gate coming in and out.”
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But committee chair and Labour councillor James Gibson suggested it would be “more logical” to have hackney carriages operate closest to the festival. He said: “It’s about convenience as well. Hackney carriages obviously don’t need to have a prior booking so it’d make sense for them to be in front of where people are likely to come out of the festival.
“Given there’s pre-booking for private hire, anyone who’s got a pre-booking would be able to walk a little bit further down to find their vehicle. I think we’ve all (as councillors) received emails to that effect.”
However, Melvyn Benn, managing director of Festival Republic, said: “Our customers are our priority. Therefore we want to give them ease of access for what they’ve booked. The hackney carriages are less the priority, more our punters are the priority. ”
Councillor Gibson replied: “I think the argument is it would be more convenient for customers to access hackney carriages straight out of the festival and then if you did have a pre-booking you’d be able to use the app to find the vehicle.” Mr Benn responded: “There’s no priority. They’re all together.”
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