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THE Co. Council has decided to send a submission to the Commission for Taxi Regulation seeking to have the administrative areas of Tramore and Lismore town councils designated as taximeters area. At the moment taxis are banned from plying for hire in non-designated towns like Tramore and Lismore.

Hackney operators currently provide the only cab transport in these towns. That means residents are confined to ordering a cab by phone.

You can’t flag down a hackney on a street and unlike taxi operators, hackneys owners are not permitted to wait for fares in a rank or queue in towns.

Dungarvan is the only urban area outside of Waterford City currently designated to have taxis. Both hackneys and taxis operate in the town.

The Co. Council’s members gave the go ahead for the submission to be made at this month’s Co. Council meeting.

Cllr. Pat Daly from the Tramore Electoral Area, said he was delighted at the application to designate Tramore as a taximeter area.

He pointed out that it’s currently very difficult to get a taxi from Waterford City to Tramore and other areas in the county because they make more money from fares within the City and asked if the Council would have any influence on stopping this practice.

“I know there are a lot of difficulties. Most councillors know of cases where people have difficulties getting home because taxis refused to take them.”

County Engineer John O’Flynn agreed to include in the Council’s submission a request that some kind of graded fare structure be put in place for people living outside the designated taximeter area.

“A graded fares structure would hopefully mitigate against taxi operators refusing to go 15 miles out the road,” he said

Taxi-meter areas sought for Tramore and Lismore