74471-39A SWINDON taxi driver says the council has only itself to blame for the town's binge drinking problems.

Nathan Blake, 36, a father of two, blames Swindon Council for allowing so many bars and clubs to be built at the lower end of town fuelling booze-related trouble on Friday and Saturday nights.

He says he has seen the situation get progressively worse during his seven years as a black cab driver.

"There are just so many bars and clubs at one end of town," he said.

"It encourages people to drink a lot more as they go from one place to the next.

"I sit in the cab and I can see people who are already drunk going into a bar and getting even more drunk.

"When people come out at the end of the night it just turns into one big boxing ring.

"I see quite a few fights among members of the younger generation and there is nowhere for older people to go into town.

"There used to be restaurants where people could go for a nice meal or places to go to see some cabaret but not any more."

The number of binge drinkers in Swindon town centre often causes problems for taxi drivers and can make their job dangerous, according to Mr Blake.

He said: "It's a job that nobody else would want to do.

"You try to vet who you pick up but if you have your light on and somebody hails the taxi then you don't often have a choice."

He also believes the council should set up a new taxi rank in Fleming Way so that revellers are not dispersed to different ranks across the town.

The council currently has plans to close off the end of John Street during certain hours at night to stop revellers from gathering in the area to catch taxis.

He said: "We need to have a taxi rank which allows us a clear run through town so we can pick people up and take them away quickly.

"The council stopped us from parking in Fleet Street four years ago.

"Before that it was easy for us to pick people up from outside the bars and clubs quickly and take them away so they didn't congregate.

"We've told the council's working party on taxis that that is what we want but we've been blanked out and they do what they want anyway."

Councillor Brian Ford, cabinet member for community safety, said: "Taxi drivers are represented on the committee that has made these decisions.

"The decision will now go out to consultation and we would welcome full and frank communication from people about this.

"If this taxi driver is unhappy then he should take his comments to the council."

He added that there were plans afoot to site a taxi rank within a short distance of John Street and Fleet Street.

Eyewitness

ONE taxi driver who has experienced violence at the hands of a drunken reveller is Mike Lea.

Last year while driving through Swindon he accidentally clipped a drunken man in Fleming Way with his taxi.

He says the man was not injured but his friend took matters into his own hands by punching Mr Lea, 40, as he called an ambulance.

He said: "I was on the phone calling 999 when he came towards me and started being really abusive.

"I was really shocked by having hit his friend and thought he might be injured.

"His friend was shouting at me so loudly that the 999 operators could hear him. Then he punched me in the face.

"The whole thing has made me really wary.

"I've been considering not doing night shifts any more.

"Ninety-nine per cent of the problems you get are because people are drunk. It has become a dangerous job."

Diana Milne