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'Taxis will circle the city'
Cabbies have warned scores of taxis will be left circling Preston unless a long-term agreement on parking is thrashed out with railway station bosses.
When work started on a new multi-storey car park last year, Virgin Trains, which runs the station, limited parking outside the building to just 12 taxis.
That sparked furious go-slow protests from more than 100 drivers with permits to wait there.
In response, a temporary 'feeder' rank was set up on the junction of Corporation Street and Ring Way.
Now there are major fears over what will happen when that temporary rank disappears, with new developments set to be built there.
Virgin has said there will be "no return" to having up to 60 cabs queueing outside the station.
Mark Selley, secretary of the Preston Hackney Carriage Association, said: "When all is said and done there are 100 cabs which work at the rail so if the feeder rank does close there is going to be an almighty problem with where those cabs are going to go.
"The feeder rank could close at very short notice. We need a contingency because we don't want to return to a situation where there are 30 cabs circling round.
"We have met with Virgin and they have made it quite clear they don't want to return to the situation we had before which was two or three lines on the station.
"They have mooted a new feeder area when the car park is finished on June 15 but we have to meet with them because if it is undercover we need to make sure there is room for the cabs...and also our radios may not work undercover."
He said he was "not convinced" of the reasons why the station cannot return to how it was before work on the car park started.
Previous stories
>> New move to end taxi dispute
>> Preston hit by taxi strike
>> Cab chaos causes mayhem at new taxi rank
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Weather for Preston
Wednesday 22 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 11 C to 12 C
Wind Speed: 40 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: South west
