SO the persecution of the taxi trade in Darlington continues unabated with drivers now receiving parking tickets for trying to rank up.

Many local drivers are having to work up to 16-hour shifts to try to generate income to feed and clothe their families.

Unlike the spongers in Darlington town hall, the taxi drivers are not salaried, do not earn enough money to have four weeks statutory holiday a year and do not leech off other people to earn a wage.

Perhaps if Darlington Borough Council were not so obsessed with issuing hackney carriage licences to the many East Europeans who have come flooding in through Eurotunnel, there would still be enough work and rank space available for our local cabbies.

Gavin Ellis, Darlington.