Taxi dri­vers have been giv­en one week to pre­pare for the planned re­lo­ca­tion of the Ch­agua­nas and Port-of-Spain taxi stands from High Street, San Fer­nan­do to Kings Wharf but they have vowed to op­pose the move legal­ly say­ing it is un­safe and im­prac­ti­cal.

Dur­ing a press con­fer­ence held at Li­brary Cor­ner on Tues­day, pres­i­dent of the T&T Taxi Dri­ver Net­work and Adri­an Acos­ta said they will fight the move through the courts.

"We are call­ing on up­right and up­stand­ing lawyers to get in con­tact with me. We will not move and we will fight this to the end," he said.

He added, "The May­or did not have any dis­cus­sions with us. It is un­fair to us. This is an in­jus­tice to pas­sen­gers. The Wharf is dark and dis­mal. There are va­grants there and the place smells bad. There are no toi­let fa­cil­i­ties yet you want to take us from a place which is busy and light­ed up to put us down there? It is un­fair, un­ac­cept­able and we be­lieve the May­or is vic­tim­iz­ing us."

Acos­ta al­so said re­lo­ca­tion of the stands will take away busi­ness from High Street.

"The San Fer­nan­do, Ch­agua­nas and Curepe taxi dri­vers bring about 15,000 pas­sen­gers dai­ly to High Street. When you put us down there the busi­ness peo­ple are go­ing to suf­fer. Some­times pas­sen­gers drop on High Street they pur­chase items. This idea of putting us on the Wharf is a to­tal waste of time and we are nev­er go­ing to sup­port it," he added.

He de­nied that the Curpe, Ch­agua­nas and Port of Spain taxi dri­vers were re­spon­si­ble for traf­fic con­ges­tion on High Street, say­ing if the May­or want­ed to clear con­ges­tion, he should ban PH cars from ply­ing for hire il­le­gal­ly on High Street.