Deteriorating Atlasville Taxi Rank should be moved

The rank, on the corner of Finch and Reier roads, Atlasville, was built in the 1970s, but more than 40 years later it has reached it capacity.

“Due to these capacity constraints, taxis have resorted to parking outside the premises and even make use of the parking bays at the Summerfields Shopping Centre, across the street,” du Plessis said.

“This has led to shop owners in the shopping centre complaining about the daily littering on their premises and community members complaining about the littering in the streets.”

Issues that were raised include the fact that the current ablution facilities consist of only two toilets, in the same room, which are used by both men and women, with no privacy.

Several drug dealers have been caught selling drugs on the premises.

Hawkers on the premises serve a purpose, as they provide food for the commuters, but there are no litter pickers to clean up inside and around the taxi rank on a daily basis.

“There are also no proper washing facilities on the premises for taxi owners to wash their taxis,” du Plessis said.

He added that, as a short-term solution, it is proposed that the Ekurhuleni Council immediately upgrades the ablution facilities and allows commuters to make use of facilities which do not undermine their dignity.

“We have been requesting the Ekurhuleni Council to upgrade these facilities since 2008,” du Plessis pointed out.

“A medium to long-term solution which should preferably take place within the next year or two, will be for the taxi rank to be moved 500m up the road, and for a fully functional taxi rank to be developed on the council-owned property next to the mini satellite dump station.

“This would allow the council to build a taxi rank with enough parking spaces for all the vehicles, build separate ablution facilities for men and woman and build a separate taxi washing area with a proper water-drainage system.”

Du Plessis added that this property is also within walking distance of the current taxi rank and next to a service road, so it will not have a negative effect on traffic, taxi owners or commuters.

The current taxi rank premises can then be used as parking for the public swimming pool, which does not have sufficient parking.

”Nearly 400 community members have already signed our petition, calling on the Ekurhuleni Council to implement these solutions, and the shop-owners in the Summerfield Shopping Centsre will also write a letter to the Ekurhuleni Council, requesting that it addressed this issue,” du Plessis explained.

“We do not begrudge the taxi owners the premises, it’s just that the facility has just reached it capacity and, therefore, we need to address this issue to help both the community and the commuters and taxi owners.”

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