TAXI MARSHALS will be deployed in a town centre to tackle an ongoing issue with queueing and traffic issues.
Darlington Borough Council has revealed two new marshals will work on Grange Road on Friday and Saturday nights each week.
The first marshals are set to start work today.
It comes after locals repeatedly complained of carnage scenes when trying to get taxis home from local venues.
Read more: Anger over removal of taxi rank in Victoria Road, Darlington
Councillor Jonathan Dulston, deputy leader of Darlington Borough Council said: “As we welcome more people back into the town centre taxi marshals will be provided on Friday and Saturday evening to support the taxi drivers and those waiting at the taxi rank in Grange Road.
"They will help maintain a safe, orderly queue and encourage people to maintain social distance to reduce the spread of Covid-19.”
Darlington residents now have fewer taxi and private hire vehicles to choose from than they did before the pandemic, figures suggest.
Department for Transport figures show 228 vehicles were licensed to operate in Darlington at the end of March.
Of those, 147 were traditional taxis which can be hailed from the street, while 81 were private hire vehicles, such as those available through Uber, which need to be pre-booked.
The figure was down from 246 the year before, when there were 157 taxis and 89 vehicles for private hire.
Across England, the number of licensed vehicles decreased from 298,800 to 251,100 over the year – a fall of 16%.
The DfT figures show there were 4.5 taxis and private hire vehicles for every 1,000 people in England at the end of March – which had fallen from 5.3 in 2020.
At 2.1 per 1,000 people, Darlington has a rate much lower than the national average.
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