Petition against Castle Cars has doubled in the last two days

Should they be associated with the Guild?

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A surge of support has flooded in for the Castle Cars petition, which now has nearly 400 signatures.

The petition, which was started by second year Will Robson, was initiated last month, but signatures have doubled in the past couple of days.

Robson launched the petition – which aims to have the taxi company disassociated with the Guild – because he believes the service they provide is poor.

But Castle Cars have slammed the protest, saying they provide “a safe, reliable” service.

Will Robson started the petition against Castle Cars

Robson said: “Castle Cars makes an unprecedented amount of money out of students by being the affiliated taxi company to the Guild – an affiliation apparently for providing an ‘appropriate’ service.

“This isn’t the reality many students face and it is about time we, the students, put an end to it and said enough is enough.”

In reaction to the petition against them, Castle Cars told The Tab: “We promote a safe, reliable fully licensed and CRB checked Driver fleet and on a regular basis remind students of the importance of using our fleet for safety reasons.

“Castle Cars has a very stringent complaints procedure in place and we always fully investigate any complaint that comes into our Office.

“Complaints can be made in several ways such as through our website, email, post or telephone but if a student does not want to complain direct to us then the Guild has their own complaints procedure which is then forwarded to us.”

Despite this claim, the petition has almost doubled in the last two days, with now nearly 400 supporters.

The petition has almost doubled in two days

Second Year, Lottie Millington, told The Tab she signed the petition because they’re rude to students.

She said: “They’re always really rude to students even when we’re completely sober, and seem to take advantage of the fact we need taxis so charge us unreasonable prices.

“It just doesn’t make sense to me the uni chose the worst taxi company in the area to affiliate themselves with.”

Kate Grimbley-Smith, studying Business, also signed the petition because of a bad experience she had with the taxi company.

She said: “Half an hour after they were meant to turn up they still weren’t there.

“Apparently they couldn’t find me and just drove off to the airport instead and there were no other taxis.

“In the end I missed my train and had to pay £30 to get home.

“When I complained they were really rude on the phone and refused to give me a refund or even pay a little bit towards the train ticket.”