Taxi drivers petitioning against moving a rank as part of a long-term makeover of Epsom town centre have had their appeal received.

Surrey County Council plans to move the taxi rank, which currently sits next to the entrance to the Ashley Centre by the clock tower, but a final location has not yet been chosen.

Moving the taxi rank would make it safer to get into cabs, a council spokesman said.

But taxi drivers disagree, and the Epsom Licensed Taxi Drivers Association launched a petition that has been signed 522 times – including by 483 members of the public.

Ffrom November: More than 500 taxi drivers and customers demand Epsom and Ewell Borough Council and Surrey County Council to reconsider High Street taxi rank move

Epsom and Ewell Borough Council, which is working alongside the county council to carry out Plan E, a package of changes to the town’s road layout between January and July, noted the petition this week.

No decision has yet been made on the petition.

It reads: “Moving the rank that has been there since the early seventies back down the High Street and to the other side of the road would be detrimental to the present high quality service that is now supplied to the shopping centre.

“After receiving this petition we would ask you as the council to reconsider the move of the rank and perhaps look into other more sensible locations in the area of the present rank, so that we can continue the quality service that we have always supplied.”

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Edward Rose, 71, has been a cab driver for 46 years, and believes moving the rank will be a disaster for him and his customers – especially the elderly or disabled.

He told the Epsom Guardian: “It’s important that a taxi rank is in the right place.

“The elderly and disabled people need the rank here.”

In a report presented to the licensing and planning policy committee on Thursday (February 23), an officer wrote that improvements to Epsom market place would necessitate moving the rank.

The officer added: “No decision has yet been made by Epsom and Ewell Borough Council regarding the taxi rank.

“The representations contained in the petitions will be taken into account when a decision on the rank location is made.

“The petition organisers will, of course, have the opportunity to repeat or expand on their representations when the formal statutory process is undertaken.”

An Epsom and Ewell council spokesman advised that a six-week consultation had been held between March and April 2015, during which residents were invited to comment on the proposed Plan E. More than 2,500 comments or suggestions were received during this period.

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