‘Chaos’ on roads as taxi drivers say ‘we’re sick to death’

People are “sick to death” of the Bootle oil spill, which is costing the council thousands of pounds and causing travel “chaos” for local residents.

There have been four oil spills on Millers Bridge in Bootle in the past year alone, leading to multiple road closures while the oil is cleaned up. These closures can last up to four days and cost thousands of pounds to clean up.

Residents and taxi drivers have complained about the frequency of the spills, the dangers they pose to the community and the impact on their livelihoods.

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Ste Brown is a taxi driver and representative of the Hackney Drivers Association and mostly operates from the rank outside Asda in Bootle. Ste’s main point is about the danger posed by oil spills. He said: “Honestly, it’s a miracle that no one was injured or even killed.”

Ste recalls an incident on Millers Bridge when he was forced to contact the emergency services. A wagon was caught spinning its wheels on the bridge after another oil spill because it couldn’t find the outlet to go up the slope. As a result, the truck began to reverse back onto a major A road.

Ste said: “As a coach driver you have no choice. You have to go over the Millers Bridge, but if they get halfway there and there’s an oil spill, they’re stuck in an impossible situation and then everyone around…residents and drivers—is put in danger.

“It seems like it’s only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured or worse.”

Ste believes the spills are happening due to a lack of checks on vehicles leaving industrial sites on Derby Road. He said: “We have seen these oil spills for the last ten years.

“You have wagons leaving with unsafe loads and we’re told it’s ‘driver error’, but how many times can these drivers make the same error. There must be a bigger problem, but no one is coming up with a solution, so, it will keep happening. We are fed up.

“They need to put controls in place because this problem can be prevented, but only if there is a will to do it.”

The impact on Ste and his fellow taxi drivers is significant. Road closures and traffic delays caused by oil spills mean its travel time is doubled and fares are halved. In addition, people are left waiting in empty queues like the one at Asda because all the drivers are stuck in traffic. In the past year, this has become increasingly difficult due to the cost of living crisis.

Another taxi driver I spoke to was Kenny who said: “As a local taxi driver I have witnessed first hand the significant disruption caused by the unannounced and prolonged closures of Millers Bridge.

“These closures have forced us to take longer and more complicated routes, resulting in increased travel time and higher costs for our customers. The unpredictability and inconvenience not only upset our regular customers, but also deterred potential new customers, significantly impacting our daily revenue. .

“Repeated closures have also had a negative effect on local businesses. With customers facing delays and increased travel costs, many are choosing to avoid the area altogether.”

Another concern for both Ste and Kenny, and one shared by many local residents we spoke to, is the cost of cleaning up the oil spill from Millers Bridge and who is responsible for paying those costs.

LDRS has seen a response from Sefton Council to a Freedom of Information request regarding clean-up costs for an April 24 oil spill incident. The response stated: “The costs of the ‘clean-up’ operation are now complete; the total cost being £12,429.75.”

The letter added: “These costs have been borne by the council. If the organization responsible cannot be traced, then the council will not be able to recover the costs.”

The worry for many residents in the borough is the cost of the £12,429 figure to clean up an oil spill incident and the impact on local authority budgets. Thanks to 14 years of austerity, the council’s finances are stretched to the limit and sunk costs from “preventable” oil spills will have a significant impact on those finances.

After initial CCTV checks, the local authority said it had been unable to identify the vehicle responsible for the April 24 incident. the total cost is for each bootle oil spill cleanup.

A Sefton Council spokesman added: “If a clean-up operation is required, it can have a significant impact on the length of time a road is closed, leading to extensive delays and disruption for motorway users, as well as potentially costing avoidable that will initially fall to the premises. Authority.”

The spokesman added: “Sefton Council will always seek to recover costs once a vehicle is identified as responsible for a road disruption. This includes talking to any company that might be represented by that vehicle.”

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