Victory in Canterbury cabbies England flag crusade
A weekly newspaper in Kent has forced its
local council into a World Cup flag U-turn.
KM Group-owned Kentish Gazette highlighted
cabbies’ fury on the front page after they were banned from showing
their support for the England team in the forthcoming tournament in
South Africa.
Officials from Canterbury City Council told
the paper, established in 1717, that the bar had been put in place
for health and safety reasons.
Licensing chief Roger Vick said: “We simply
want them to look like taxis as there is no confusion for
customers.
“During the World Cup there will be lots of
cars with flags and stickers driving about, but taxi customers need
to know that the vehicle they are getting into is a licensed
taxi.”
Calling the council killjoys, the paper called
for the bureaucrats to think again attacking their ‘flaky’
reasoning and asking them to imagine the uproar in Italy, Spain or
France if officials there had tried to stop drivers from flying
their flags.
Less than 36 hours later, the council changed
its mind, relaxing the rules and allowing cabbies to fly a single
flag each.
They also promised to revisit their policy
once the World Cup finals were over.
Gazette editor Leo Whitlock said: “This must
be one of the fastest council U-turns in history. You have to give
them credit for rapidly coming to their senses.
“As soon as the story appeared on the streets,
readers started to email in. We had a host of readers’ letters in
the post the following day.
“Our
online version started to attract a whole host of comments as
soon as it went live and it was the main topic of conversation on
our sister radio station kmfm.”
(May 28, 2010)