A Perth taxi company has lambasted the traffic management “shambles” surrounding events at Scone Palace ahead of this month’s Rewind Festival.
Drivers for Ace Taxis claim they are often told to take massive detours when leaving the palace or forced to drop passengers long distances away from their destination.
Owner Andy Lothian said he stopped accepting bookings for this weekend’s Scottish Game Fair due to the issue and that the Rewind music festival was a “disaster waiting to happen”.
Mr Lothian claimed his drivers were forced to take a 10-mile detour when leaving the game fair on Friday, making it not worth their while to take customers to and from the event.
He said: “It’s an absolute shambles.
“I stopped taking bookings because it’s an £8 fare and it’s an extra 30 minutes and then this 10 mile detour – the boys aren’t making any money.
“Every event that has been at Scone Palace has been a disaster for taxis.”
The taxi company boss said he had concerns about public safety around Rewind, since revellers would be coming and going late into the evening.
“Rewind is just another disaster waiting to happen,” he said.
“They were making us drop them (passengers) off half-a-mile away last year and they were walking 20-25 minutes.
“And then, after, they had to walk all the way back in the dark. Many of these people are getting taxis because they can’t walk these distances.”
Mr Lothian said the management systems used on the day were never the ones that had been agreed in consultations with drivers.
He said: “It’s absolutely shocking. It happens every time they put an event on out there.
“We’re being treated as second class citizens. Police Scotland are not interested in traffic management.”
Police insisted they only attended in a monitoring capacity and that each event had its own private traffic management company.
A Tayside Police spokesperson said: “The Scone Game Fair organisers have employed a private traffic management company to operate the traffic management plan, which is the same plan that has been used in previous years.
“Officers are in attendance to monitor the road networks around the Game Fair site, which is standard practice.
“No issues have been reported to Police Scotland by the event traffic manager.”
Scone Palace was approached for comment.
Rewind Festival will take place at the venue from July 19-21.
