ONE April night back in 1991 a spring night in Le Mans Crescent became the stage for an unforgettable sight.
Hundreds of cars descended on the town centre as taxi drivers staged a huge protests at midnight on April 5.
Described as “frightened and furious cabbies”, the mass demonstration saw the town’s private hire firms demanding protection from “drunken thugs”.
Le Mans Crescent was jammed up by the cars and night-time revellers were left to find alternative transport home. According to a news report at the time, the protest was prompted by a “vicious attack” on driver Mohammed Amir by two men in Harwood. Taxi drivers argued that the incident was just one in a series of attacks which left them in fearing working the night shifts. Bolton’s Council Leader, then the town’s licensing chairman, Cllr Cliff Morris was brought in just before midnight by police to calm the situation.
Bolton Evening News photographer Derek Ralphs caught the scene at “the height of the ‘siege’” on camera.
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